How TO Understand 



Words of Christ 



A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR 
TEACHERS AND BIBLE STUDENTS 




Class d5?4\^ 

Book_JEllfL__ 
Copyright }I° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSn; 



HOW TO UNDERSTAND 
THE WORDS OF CHRIST 



A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK FOR 
TEACHERS AND BIBLE STUDENTS 



BY , 

ALFORD A. BUTLER, D.D. 

FORMER WARDEN, AND PROFESSOR IN SEABURY DIVINITY SCHOOL 
AUTHOR OF "HOW TO STUDY THE LIFE OF CHRIST" 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS WHITTAKER, INC. 

PUBLISHERS 



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Copyright, 1909, 
By THOMAS WHITTAKER, Inc. 



|CI,A25281I 






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PREFACE 



This Handbook is a twin volume to " How to Study the 
Life of Christ." Like that volume it has grown out of the 
author's many years of happy work with young men. 

With devout thankfulness for the kindly and continued 
welcome given the former volume, this book is sent forth with 
^he earnest prayer that it also may prove a helpful guide to all 
who sincerely desire to understand the words of Him, who is 
our Light, our Way, and our Truth. 



CONTENTS 



PA6B 

I. What is Truth ? 7 

Sources of Christian Dis-Unity. — Ignoring Historical Condi- 
tions. —Ignoring the Limitations of Language. — Ignoring 
the Purpose of Christ.— The Greatest Difficulty of all. 

II. Our Lord's Answer 17 

The Claims and Challenge of Christ. — Our Fundamental 
Principle of Interpretation.— The Perfect Unity of Christ's 
Life and Teaching. 

III. Our Lord's Principles of Interpretation 23 

The Principles and Methods of the Master. — The Supremacy 
of Fundamental Truths. — The Progressiveness of Revela- 
tion. — The Master's Interpretive Principles. 

IV. Our Lord's Words ai^d the Teachings op his Age 34 

Jewish Conditions from Malachi to St. John Baptist. — Condi- 
tions Created by the Sadducees. — Conditions Created by the 
Pharisees. — The Methods of the Divine Master. — The Basis 
of the Master's Teaching. 
V. Our Lord's Teaching and Old Testament Truth 43 

The Mission of St. John Baptist.— The Threefold Revelation 
at the Jordan. — The Absolute Loyalty of the Son. — The 
Destructive Power of Truth. 

VI. Teaching in the Period of Preparation 51 

First Words in Wilderness, and Temple. — First Private In- 
structions. — First Teaching by Miracles and Social Activity. 
— First Rejection, at Nazareth. — The Master's Essential 
Message in this Period. 

VII. Teaching in the Period op Organization 66 

Constructive Unity of theMaster's Word and Deed. — Strange- 
ness of the Master's Words and Methods. — Spiritual Free- 
dom of the Kingdom. — Spiritual Nature of the Kingdom. — 
Outward Organization of the Kingdom. — Spiritual Law 
and Life in the Kingdom. — The Human Mission of the 
Kingdom. — The Divine Bread of the Kingdom. 
5 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VIII. Parables in the Period op Organization 82 

The Place and Purpose of the Parable. — The Master's Prin- 
ciples of Interpretation, — The Nature and Growth of the 
Kingdom. — The Priceless Value of the Kingdom. 

IX. The Period of Self -Revelation 94 

Relation of the New Kingdom and the Old Church. — The 
Training of the Twelve. — The Kingdom Calling and Reject- 
ing. — The Divine Nature of the King. 

X. Early Parables in the Period of Self-Revelation Ill 

The Order of Parabolic Teaching. — Imagery of the Parables 
of this Period. — Duties of Neighbors in the Kingdom. — 
Duties of Brothers in the Kingdom. — Responsibilities of 
Trustees in the Kingdom. 

XI. Later Parables in the Period op Self-Manifest ation. . 124 
The Rewards of the Kingdom. — The Final Judgment of the 
Kingdom. 

XII. The Period op the Passion 136 

The Master Prepares the Apostles for His Cross. — His Words 
before Death. — His Words after Death. — The Great Forty- 
Days. 

XIII. Miracles as an Educational Method 149 

Perfect Unity of the Master's Word and Work. — The Public 
Miracles of Christ. — Public Miracles with Private Instruc- 
tion, — The Private Miracles of Christ. — Private Miracles 
for Private Training. 

XrV. The Teaching of Divine Silence 162 

The Silence of Divine Certainty. — The Silence that Approves 
or Permits. — The Silence that Gives Moral Freedom, — The 
Silence that Creates Hope. — The Silence of Providential 
Care. — The Silence of Divine Tuition. 

XV. How Christ Reveals God to Man 173 

Man's Most Perfect Vision of God, — Man's Vision of God the 
Creator, — Man's Vision of God the Lover, — Man's Vision 
of God the Forgiver. — Man's Vision of God the Comforter. 



How to Understand the Words 
of Christ, 



CHAPTEE I. 
WHAT IS TRUTH? 



Everyone who says ** I am a Christian/' confesses his 
faith in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. Christians 
are in perfect agreement as to the Person of Jesus Christ, 
His human and divine nature, the historic facts of His in- 
carnation, ministry, and death. And (what is more im- 
portant) all Christians are in essential agreement as to the 
spiritual significance of His life and death. It is only when 
they attempt to explain the teaching of Christ, that they 
begin to disagree, and to contradict. 

The Source of Christian Dis-unity is not in the words of 
Christ, but in our interpretation of them. It is easy for us 
to agree in saying, Every word spoken by Christ is a word 
of divine truth, is our light, and our inspiration. But the 
real question, the one which creates and perpetuates our 
unchristian divisions, is left untouched. For that question 
is: What does Christ teach? What- is the true meaning 
of His words ? 

The sword that has sundered the unity of Christ's people 
in the past, and is dividing His people to-day, is not ^^ The 
sword of the Spu'it, which is the Word of God," but the 

7 



8 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

sword of doctrinal interpretation, which is the word of man. 
If Christians were as united on the Master's teaching as 
they are on His life, the whole world would be conquered 
for Christ before the close of the present century. 

The Discovery of Truth is always Difficult. This ap- 
plies both to physical and spiritual truth. We are familiar 
with controversies over what is truth in art and science, in 
education, ethics, and medicine. It would be very strange 
if men who cannot agree about earthly knowledge, should 
have no difficulty in finding heavenly truth. It would be 
much more strange if the man who did not desire to know 
the truth should find it. The source of our difficulty is 
twofold. It is found in the method by which truth is re- 
vealed, and still more in the mind that is seeking it ; or 
(more is the pity) seeking to avoid it. 

Difficulties from the Method of Revelation. The 
Gospels are brief. At best they are only an outline, the 
bare essentials of the Master's teaching. They took form 
under conditions which made a record of details and par- 
ticulars impossible ; and this was the will of the Master. 
Christ never committed His teachings to writing. He never 
sought to give them a fixed verbal form. His most wonder- 
ful sayings were often uttered to some wayside questioner. 
His inimitable parables were spoken to small groups of 
common-folk by the seaside. Had He purposed to for- 
mulate rules for daily conduct, or a system of religious 
philosophy, or to answer the problems of ethical speculation, 
He would have chosen a very different method of instruc- 
tion. The Master's aim was to print His Gospel upon the 
hearts of His disciples, to inspire their lives by making 
them partakers of the living truth, i. e. Himself. This 
could not be done by the method of the Scribes or Rabbis. 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 9 

Ignoring Historical Conditions. The Master's words 
were spoken to oriental ears, His striking comparisons were 
drawn from oriental life. His vivid pictures, and par- 
adoxical sayings were addressed to oriental minds. His 
method of teaching was perfectly adapted to His hearers. 
But to our occidental minds they present many a difficulty 
which can be removed only by careful study. Eemember 
also that what the Oriental received was a living picture of 
truth. Too often you and I see only black letters on a 
printed page. ^N'aturally the reader (more than the hearer) 
thinks overmuch of words and phrases, and too little of the 
great historic truth behind them. But the same word often 
stands for different ideas in different lands, even at different 
historic periods in the same land. If, for example, one 
reads The Light of Asia thinking that such words as ' ' right- 
eousness, " * * purity, " < ' sin, " ' * death, " ^ ' heaven ' ' stand 
for the same ideas that they do in Christian lands he is only 
enjoying a delightful delusion. In the Bible itself such 
words occurring in the Old Testament do not express the 
identical meaning that they do in the Gospels, nor did they 
convey to the Hebrew the measure of spiritual truth they 
convey to us. 

Again, some earnest readers of the Gospel seem to think 
that the Jewish Church ended when the ministry of Christ 
began, and that the men to whom the Master spoke had 
the same religious ideas and spiritual standards that we have 
to-day. The facts are just the opposite. There was no 
Christian Church either at the beginning or end of the 
period covered by the Gospels. In all the multitude that 
listened to the words of the Master there was not one 
Christian man or woman. There was not one able to 
understand His spiritual teaching in the same measure that 



10 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

you and I can understand it. The Christian Church came 
into being with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the 
Apostles at Pentecost. During the whole period of our 
Lord's teaching there was but one Christian on the earth, 
the man Christ Jesus. These facts had much to do with 
shaping the Master's words and the methods of His teach- 
ing. 

The Limitations of Language must also be taken into 
account. Every advance in human knowledge demands new 
words in which to accurately express new facts. Science is 
adding thousands of words to the English language every 
few years. The new terminology of one science alone, fills 
an octavo dictionary. Electricians were compelled to coin 
these new words in order to accurately communicate their 
discoveries to the world. Yet when Jesus Christ came 
to earth with a revelation from God, He was com- 
pelled to speak in the earth-bound language of man. It 
is because He was bound by the limitations of human 
knowledge that He is constantly telling His hearers what 
His Father is ' ' like. ' ' What the Kingdom of Heaven is 
' ' like, ' ' what the Holy Spirit is ' ' like. ' ' In limited human 
speech it was impossible for Him to convey to man all that 
God is, or all that spiritual realities are. Do you always 
remember this as you study His words? 

Moreover, human speech never conveys to human ears all 
that it stands for in the mind of the speaker. And this 
basic principle governs your understanding or misunder- 
standing of this page, and this book. The truth, exactly as 
it stands in my mind, cannot be transferred to the mind of 
another. ISTo matter what words I select they will not 
mean to you exactly what they mean to me ; and there- 
fore they cannot convey to you the exact idea in my mind. 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 11 

If your experience in the study of man and truth is larger 
than mine, then you will pass over the inadequateness of 
my words, and grasp a truth larger than mine. If your 
experience is more limited than mine, then to you my words 
will convey less than I am trying to express. In every 
case each reader will receive what he has educated himself 
to receive. 

It is impossible that the words of life spoken by Christ 
should convey to His hearers the whole truth. IS^o two 
hearers ever received exactly the same truth, or the same 
amount of truth. That hearer received the most of the 
divine message whose own Life was lived on a plane nearest 
to that on which Christ lived. The particular part of the 
truth which each hearer received was decided by his own 
mind and heart. (Study S. Jn. 12 : 23-30.) 

Ignoring the purpose of Christ. Christ taught for all 
men in all ages. ' ' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
my word shall not pass away. ' ' All men included aU those 
to whom He was speaking. ISTaturally they asked Him to 
explain His principles, and apply His words to the problems 
of their own lives. He did so. But these words, so help- 
ful to the men of His own age, are the stumbling-blocks of 
men to-day. Why? Because we ignore the difference be- 
tween di. principle of action, and a rule of action; between 
unchanging truth, and its temporary, local, or individual 
application. Because Christ said to one particular man who 
needed it, Give aU you possess to the poor, some have taught 
that every man must do the same. 

The Gospels record Christ's principles of life. These 
principles if honestly and sincerely studied will teach us, 
amid the ever changing conditions of human life, to form 
such personal rules of conduct as will enable us to walk in 



12 HOW TO UNDERSTAKD THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

His footsteps. But the spiritually lazy man wants some- 
thing easier. He seeks exact rules of conduct for every 
possible, or imaginary situation of life. The Gospel of the 
Kingdom is not a pocket dictionary of ethical rules for 
deciding the right or wrong of — '' Backgammon, " *' Bil- 
liards," «' Cards," '« Church Fairs," ^ ' Dancing, "* ^ Free 
Trade," <«Golf," ^'Grab Bags," ''Operas," ''Prohibi- 
tion, " " Theatergoing, ' ' and ' ' Woman' s Suffrage. ' ' 

Even more blinding to one who would know the freedom 
of truth, is the practice of treating the Gospel record as if 
it were an astrologer's dreambook or a fortune-teller's 
oracle. Yet some try to decide the problems of life by a 
chance opening of the Gospels. The first word to meet 
their gaze being accepted as a heaven-sent message. Shall 
I speak to one who has injured me? The chance opening 
of the inspired record reads, "I know not the man! " I 
am ill, shall I attend church? The Gospel falls open at 
" That I may go and worship Him." I am asked to read a 
certain book, shall I? The eye chances to see " This man 
blasphemeth," ; and the seeker acts according to the chance 
vision. Yet the first text is the inspired record of a lie, 
the second records the hypocritical words of a murderer, 
and the third text records a blasphemous contradiction of 
Christ. 

The purpose of Christ was not to utter oracular formulas 
for the superstitious, rigid rules for the spiritually indolent, 
nor theological dogmas for the intellectually pugnacious. 
The supreme purpose of the Divine Teacher was to inspire 
the heart, and quicken the spiritual life of man. It is ours 
to hear, read, mark, learn, and spiritually understand the 
words of Christ, and this we cannot do unless we give them 
intelligent and prayerful study. 



WHAT IS TRUTH ? 13 

The Greatest Difficulty of all arises not from the method 
of revelation, the language of the Master nor the nature of 
truth ; it arises from the nature of man. The difficulties in 
the Gospel are not to be compared with the difficulties to 
be found in the mind of its readers. Our greatest stum- 
bling-block is ourself , our own uneducated minds or (what 
is worse) perverse hearts. The untrained reader does not 
realize that what we call ^< words" are only arbitrary 
sounds, or printed symbols. Whatever a word means to 
him to-day, he vainly supposes it meant in Christ's day. 
He cannot picture civil, social, or religious conditions dif- 
ferent from his own ; and so unconsciously reads into the 
Gospel the religious conditions of to-day. Yet the un- 
learned if he reads with an honest and prayerful heart, 
comparing Scripture with Scripture, will gradually educate 
himself to understand spiritually, and so get at the heart 
of Christ's teaching in a way that puts to shame the 
educated but perverse student. It is one of the striking 
facts of the Gospel story that the ignorant penitents of 
Christ's day understood His words better than the learned 
Scribes or the self-satisfied Pharisees. 

The open mind and the receptive heart is the best of all 
aids in Bible study. Dr. Jewett, Kegius Professor of Greek 
in the University of Oxford (and author of several commen- 
taries), says — '* Anyone who would learn the sacred writings 
by heart, and paraphrase them in English, would probably 
make a nearer approach to their true meaning than he would 
gather from any commentary. ' ' A young truth-seeker asked 
the President of Magdalen College, Oxford, for direction in 
study. The aged theologian (over ninety), after silent 
thought, said : ' ' Were I you, sir, I would first of all read the 
Gospel of St. Matthew (silence). Then the Gospel of St. 



14 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Mark (pause). Then go on to St. Luke (longer silence). 
Then 1 would certainly read the Gospel according to St. 
John." 

Another trainer of Bible students, the President of Crozer 
Theological Seminary, said to a teacher trainer : '' Get your 
students to study less about the Bible, and to take the Book 
as its own best interpreter, its best explanation, its best ar- 
gument, its best defence. I have been studying it con- 
stantly these seventy years, and teaching it almost as long. 
Give me all the commentaries that have been written in 
English, and I will take my one hour with the Bible alone, 
in preference to the rest of the day with commentaries and 
helps." My own thirty years* experience as teacher, 
teacher trainer, and theological professor, moves me to add, 
— these testimonies are true. 

It is the ignorant reader who thinks himself wise, 
that becomes a blind leader of the blind. I recall a Bible 
teacher (?) I chanced to hear interpret a passage in a manner 
that offended her better read hearers. On their appealing 
to me, I mildly suggested that other passages of Holy 
Scripture on the same subject should be taken into account. 
I was quickly silenced by, ' ' I have studied this question for 
years, and have received a special revelation on the subject. ' ' 
When honest ignorance sincerely believes that its errors are 
a revelation from God, no human power can enlighten it. 

Unconscious bias often blinds us to the meaning of Christ's 
words. We think we are carefully studying and applying 
our best judgment to Holy Scripture, when in fact we are 
being led by some obscure personal motive, or prejudice. 
It is not easy to discover the truth. The path is full of dif- 
ficulties most of which are older than we are. The man 
who does not sincerely desire to know the truth certainly 



WHAT IS TRUTH? 15 

will never find it. If we are conscious that we are being led 
by our prejudices, and are too proud to confess, and cor- 
rect our fault, then the situation develops a serious moral 
responsibility. 

There are no perversions of Holy Scripture worse than 
those which are the fruit of self-interest, partisanship, or 
sectarian pride. The man who wills to see in Holy Scrip- 
ture only what he wants to see, and tries to make others 
see only what he desires them to see, is an immoral man, 
and a perverter of God's Word. But far short of this it is 
ours to stop and ask ourselves, ' < Am I studying the Gospels 
to find out what they teach, or what I want them to teach ? ' ' 

To sum up all we have said : The main difficulty in un- 
derstanding the words of Christ comes from the self we 
bring to His teaching. We may earnestly desire to know 
the truth, yet some of us find it hard to believe that any in- 
terpretation can be correct if it contradicts our personal 
opinions, or our own pet theories. In other words the dis- 
covery of truth is made difficult just in proportion as the 
factor of self-interest becomes a part of it. Plainly then 
our success or failure in the discovery of the truth is de- 
cided by the factor of self. If I love myself more than I 
love the truth I shall not find it. If I allow self in any 
measure to become my standard of truth I shall in that 
same measure fail to discover it. 

Someone, however, may ask, if the principle be correct 
that we are obliged to interpret what we see and what we 
hear by our own experience, how will it ever be possible 
for us to discover the truth? By getting away from our 
own selfish experience, by entering into a larger, more 
generous, and more loving experience, by losing ourselves in 
that higher and nobler Self which is not our own. ' ' Eepent 



16 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

ye, and believe the Gospel. ' ' For many men a change of 
mind and heart, the renouncing of selfish desire and selfish 
purpose must jprecede the discovery of the truth as it is in 
Christ Jesus. 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

No one can find all that there is in any book simply by reading it. This 
is superlatively true of a book based on the Gospels. The reader who 
carefully and prayerfully studies the words of Our Lord, using this 
volume only as a guide, will obtain fourfold the benefit that comes to a 
mere reader. I do not desire you to accept my interpretation of any 
word of Christ. I do most devoutly desire that you obey the admonition 
of the Divine Teacher: — " Search the Scriptures, for * * they are they 
which testify of Me." 

Read carefully St. John 18 : 38-38. Study each word of Christ in vss. 
36-38. What does Christ claim is His relation to the truth V 

Is Truth to be said, or done ? Study St. John 3 : 21. 8 : 12-18. 8 : 42-47. 
14:6. Make notes of what you have learned of Christ's relation to Truth. 



CHAPTEK II. 

OUR LORD'S ANSWER. 

'^ What is Truth? " The man who asked that question 
stood face to face with Jesus Christ. He was a man of the 
world, a keen politician, a powerful Governor, and it was 
his knowledge of his own world and his own associates, that 
caused him to make his question a hopeless sneer, and to 
turn his back upon the Christ without an answer. Yet, 
what is equally significant, although he was sure that 
*' truth" was a sham, and the cloak of cowards, never- 
theless he believed in the sincerity of the man before him 
and tried to save Him from being murdered by self-righteous 
hypocrites. 

Are we prepared to answer Pilate's question? Can a par- 
agraph answer it? Or a chapter, or a volume, or even a 
library? Think you that if the Christ could have answered 
the Roman Governor's question with words (few or many) 
He would have given his whole life to its revelation? 
The answer of Pilate's question is too large to be contained 
in any verbal statement. Truth is not found in written 
rules but in living principles. Truth is not a formula but a 
life. Men have attempted to put into a few words the 
truth which God's Son spent thirty years in revealing, — and 
then left to be completed by the Holy Spirit. 

Nevertheless, before we begin our study of the words of 
the Master, we must have a standard of truth by which to 
interpret them, one that shall satisfy our own conscience and 
appeal to our pupils as reasonable. Such a standard cannot 

17 



18 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

be found in ourselves. We are convinced that the intrusion 
of self is the factor mainly responsible for the misinterpre- 
tations which have divided the Body of Christ. 

What is the Universal Test of Truth? By what do we 
measure the words of the merchant, the neighbor, or the 
friend? Is it not by his deeds? And if what he says, and 
what he does are not the same, are we not quick to note it, 
and to withdraw our confidence? And will any reiteration 
of statement, or positiveness of assertion restore our confi- 
dence so long as the man's words and deeds fail to agree? 
* ' Actions speak louder than words. ' ' We measure every 
man's words by his deeds. Jesus of JS^azareth was a man 
among men. He claimed no exception from the moral ob- 
ligations of men. As they measured the words of others so 
He expected them to measure His words. Nay, more, as 
they measured other men so He demanded to be measured 
by them. "The works that I do in my Father's name, 
they bear witness of me. If I do not the works of my 
Father, believe me not. ' ' 

It is easy for a learned teacher to shut himself in his study 
and write a long and brilliant theory of conduct, but what is 
it worth? The path of human progress is littered with the 
wrecks of systems of truth elaborated by great theorists. 
Why? Because Truth expressed in words only, truth pre- 
sented as something separate, and apart from the struggle 
of human life is worthless. A deaf and dumb boy practising 
obedience to God will teach more truth in one hour than a 
mere theorist can in a year. Christ was the greatest of all 
teachers. Yet He was a man who went about doing things, 
overcoming evil, doing good. His deeds far outweigh His 
words. He lived in the open. He was found daily in the 
market-place, the synagogue, and the fishing- boat, among 



OUR LORD'S ANSWER. 19 

blind beggars, outcasts, publicans and sinners ; and in every- 
place where there were souls that needed Him. Jesus was 
indeed a teacher, but no other teacher had the same right as 
He, to point to His deeds as proof of the truthfulness of 
His teaching. 

The Claims and Challenge of Christ. This Teacher who 
lived in perfect touch with the common people, who was the 
companion of outcasts and the friend of sinners, claims for 
Himself, and demands from His followers, unhesitating obe- 
dience to the highest possible moral and spiritual standards. 
His teaching is positive, absolute, aggressive. Eight only is 
right, truth only is truth, and they must be followed with- 
out quibbling or evasion of any sort. His standards admit 
of no compromise, no exceptions, no accommodation to appe- 
tites, passions or weaknesses. 

The aggressiveness of His teaching repelled the easy- 
going, and offended the rich. His condemnation of the 
immoral casuistry of the Scribes, and quibbling evasions of 
the Pharisees aroused their opposition and their hate. They 
denounced His words, and would gladly have denied His 
deeds if they could. But exalted as were the standards of 
the Master, He practised all that He taught. His most 
watchful enemies could find no divergence between His 
words and His deeds. His teaching and His daily life 
were in perfect accord. Was any other proof necessary? 

Other proof was not necessary, and yet Christ Himself 
demanded that His words should be put to a severer test. 
Confident of His own faultless integrity, perfect purity of 
heart and sincerity of soul, Christ turned to those Jews who 
were seeking not only to destroy His teaching, but to 
destroy His life, and said, — '^ Because I tell you the truth 
ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? " 



20 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

It was a challenge to His bitterest enemies ; but they dared 
not accept it. Then to them Christ put the heart-searching 
question — " If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? " 
Can more be asked of any teacher than this, that his very 
heart and soul shall be as perfect as his teaching? 

When Pontius Pilate asked his half-sneering, half-des- 
pairing question, ''What is truth?" Our Lord made no 
direct answer. To do so was impossible. Yet His reply is 
a wonderfully significant one, in the light of our study of 
His words to the Jews. Our Lord's words to Pilate are : 
' ' To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into 
the world, that I should bear witness to the truth." 
Uttered almost at the foot of the Cross, He declared that 
the end for which He was born, the end for which He had 
lived, and the end for which He was about to die, is to bear 
witness to the truth. 

Christ referred Pontius Pilate to His life. He refused to 
consider truth apart from human life, Llis truth apart from 
His own life. For all His teaching He claimed that 
" The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are 
life." Yea, "lam the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 
What would you think of the sincerity, or sanity of any 
man who dared to make that claim to-day? None save the 
Son of Man has ever dared to face the question, "What is 
truth? and answer, " I AM THE TRUTH." 

We have made our quest. What have we found? We 
have found the one certain standard of truth. And this 
standard is not a verbal statement, but a living Person ; the 
Life of Him who is Truth. We have found that Christ 
Himself refused to allow His words to be considered apart 
from His deeds, His teaching separate from His life. His 
words are a part of Himself. Yet, they are not the greater, 



OUR LORD'S ANSWER. 21 

but the lesser part of His teaching: for His words must 
always be measured and interpreted by the Person behind 
them. 

Our Fundamental Principle of Interpretation, the one 
that is to be our guide in all our study, has been found. 
We must interpret Our Lord^s words hy Our Lord^s Life, 

The mere statement of this basic principle makes clearer 
our vision and plainer our path. It eliminates self, the 
greatest of all difficulty-making factors. It transfers our 
standard of truth from the selfish experience of man to the 
self-sacrificing experience of man's Saviour. It exalts the 
sublime character of Our Teacher. In St. Paul's letters 
there is a greater revelation of truth than in his life, but in 
the Person of Christ is found a far greater revelation of 
truth than in all His words. 

The Perfect Unity of Christ's Life and Teaching. The 
Master's words are many. His life is one. A vivid vision 
of His Person will lead us into the heart of His teaching. 
His Manger, His Cross, His vacant Sepulchre teach the 
spiritual realities of His Incarnation, His Atonement, His 
Kesurrection with a power beyond that of words. "What 
the Son of Man is, not what He said, must ever be to us the 
matter of supreme importance. The sublime words of the 
Gospel without the sublime Life behind them — what would 
they be to a heart-hungry soul? But now, having found 
Christ's own point of view, we see in every saying of the 
Master a line of autobiography, a flash of light from that 
divine life lived in the bosom of His Father, or a word of 
love out of that perf ecth^ human life lived in the homes and 
hearts of men. 

All that Christ taught he lived. All that He demanded 
of others He is. The standard of spotless perfection which 



22 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

He held up before men is the mirror of His own spotless 
soul. His teaching and His living are inseparable, they are 
part of one divine harmony. The one true and certain in- 
terpretation of His words is found in His own flawless and 
radiant life. 



CONSTKUCTIVE STUDIES. 

Read St. Matt. 22 : 34-40. Study the passage witli this question in mind. 
What does this teach about Biblical interpretation ? Some think every 
word of Scripture equally important. What did the lawyer think ? What 
did Christ think ? Did Christ argue ? What did He take for granted ? 
Why did he not name one commandment as the lawyer desired ? Is there 
any principle of interpretation involved ? 

What is the First Commandment ? What the second ? Which is 
more important ? What did the Jews think ? What did Our Lord say ? 
Study St. Luke 6:6-11. 

Compare St. Matt. 3 : 15 and St. John 16 :12. Do they help interpret St. 
Matt. 10:5-6, and St. Matt. 28: 16-20 ? 

Study St. Mark 12 : 18-27. What did the questioners believe ? What 
said Our Lord ? When did Abraham die ? Date of God's speaking to 
Moses ? What bearing has this on vs. 27 ? on Biblical interpretation ? Make 
notes of your studies. 



CHAPTER III. 

OUR LORD'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 

Our Lord is the Great Interpreter. Much of His minis- 
try was devoted to answering questions. He was asked 
about the prophets and teachers, the saints and sinners of 
the Old Covenant; about their words and their deeds, 
about what was sin, righteousness, and truth in the moral 
twilight in which they lived. He was asked concerning 
the world to come, and the destiny of man ; asked to decide 
between the conflicting words and moral standards of the 
teachers of His own day. Moreover, in our day we need to 
apply His teaching to the multitudinous (and frequently con- 
flicting) duties of life in a complex civilization, and we are 
often at a loss, to know how to act. In all these matters 
we need definite guidance in order to discern and apply 
the truth. Does not our Lord's life help us in these 
matters ? 

There is no path or duty of man where Christ's life is not 
our light and our guide. It is true that some matters just 
mentioned may be outside of the personal life of Jesus, but 
so far as principles are concerned, nothing can come into 
our lives which did not come into the earthly career of the 
Son of Man. There are no questions concerning human 
life and duty that have not been answered either by His 
words, His principles or His life. 

Let us then study the methods of Christ in answering the 
questions, meeting the moral problems, and solving the 
interpretative difficulties of His own age, and if we do it 



24 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

with a sincere desire to know the truth, we shall surely dis- 
cover the basic principles underlying His varying methods 
and applications. 

In all His ministry no question asked the Master, was 
more important than that asked Him by a Pharisaic lawyer. 
(Matt. 22:35), *' Master, which is the great command- 
ment in the Law? " It was a question concerning God's 
nature, and man's duty. It was also a question concerning 
Christ's principles of interpretation. We often meet people 
who think that every statement in the Bible is of equal im- 
portance, and that all Christ's teaching is on the same level ; 
that Grod gave no great commandments, nor minor com- 
mandments, but that every inspired truth is equally 
important. 

The lawyer thought differently. He took it for granted 
that there were great laws and lesser laws, and conse- 
quently, greater duties and lesser duties. Did our Lord con- 
tradict him? On the contrary He accepted the position of 
the lawyer as correct, and at once selected and recited a 
commandment which He placed above all others, save one. 

This decision of Christ is one of far-reaching importance. 
It establishes for all time a principle of interpretation. All 
parts of an inspired book, chapter, or even of a paragraph, 
are not of equal importance. The fact that Christ fed 5,000 
Galileans is on one level. The fact that ^ ' there was much 
grass in the place " is on another, and very different level. 
We have our Lord's authority for holding as a fundamental 
principle for the interpretation of the words of the Old 
Covenant, and for the understanding of His words in the 
Gospels, this truth : All insjpired truth is not of equal 
irrvportance. 

But this first principle of Christ cannot stand alone. If 



OUR LORD'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 25 

all spiritual truth is not on the same level, if some laws are 
more important than others, then we need some standard, 
some principle of interpretation by which we can separate 
the greater from the less. To rely upon self, to make our 
own judgment the standard, is to fall back into past dis- 
agreements, and past strife. Let us turn again to Christ. 
The lawyer's question took one thing for granted. The 
answer of our Lord takes several things for granted ; and 
they are the most important things that are found in the 
Christian Eeligion. Indeed as we study Christ's words we 
shall see that He does here what He is doing constantly. 
Christ never argues about the basic truths of religion. 
He takes them for granted. He did so in this case. 

JS'ote His answer : ' ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind." Here the Son of Man takes for granted (a) the 
first and most fundamental of all truths — the existence of 
God. He had come from the bosom of the Father. It 
was impossible for Him not to assume the existence of His 
own Father. He takes it for granted (b) that man was 
created in the moral and spiritual image of his Creator, and 
therefore is endowed with mental and moral freedom. He 
takes for granted (c) that these gifts from God made man 
accountable to God, and places upon him a personal 
responsibility to acknowledge that accountability in life 
and conduct. 

Having thus taken for granted the great fundamental 
truths on which all religion is based, Jesus says to the law- 
yer. The highest possible form in which a man can 
express his obligation to God is not obedience, nor labor, 
nor worship, nor righteousness. It is in love. For true 
obedience, and righteousness, and labor, and worship are 



26 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

the expression of love. Therefore, ' ' Thou shall love the 
Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
with all thy mind. This is the first and great Command- 
ment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself. ' ' 

In what Christ takes for granted, and in the summary of 
God's law which he uttered, we find the second of our 
Lord's principles of interpretation, — the standard we must 
have to enable us to understand the relative greatness of the 
truth of God. The most fundamental of all truths are those 
which reveal (a) the Person of God^ (h) the Nature of Ma/n 
(g) Man^s relation to God, and (d) Man''s relation to his 
neighhor. 

But this is not all that Christ's words teach us. In His 
wonderfully enlightening reply to the lawyer we find the 
application of another of our Lord's principles of inter- 
pretation. "When we discover a new truth we are 
tempted by the glamour of its newness to do two things ; 
first to forget that a whole is greater than any of its parts, 
and so we put the new truth above all others, regardless of 
its relative value. Then, secondly, we separate this new 
truth from all others and treat the part as if it were greater 
than the whole. To follow Christ's second principle of in- 
terpretation will keep us from the first error. To rightly 
study the Master's answer as a whole will disclose another 
principle which will save us from the second error. 

* ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," ''This," 
the Master declared, ' ' is the first and great Commandment. ' ' 
Why did not the Master stop right there ? He had an- 
swered the lawyer's question. Measured by human minds 
His answer was complete. What need for anything more? 



OUR LORD'S PRINCIPLES OP INTERPRETATION. 27 

Or, if Christ wanted to name a Second Commandment, why 
did he not say, '^ The Second Commandment is Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" ? Both statements 
would have stood out clearly, each would have been dis- 
tinct, and complete in itself. Why did He say more? 

Because completeness to the mind of man is not complete- 
ness to the mind of Christ. To have said, '< This is the first 
and great Commandment" and stopped there, would have 
been an untruth. The Truth knew personally what we 
know only theoretically. He saw perfectly what we see 
only partially, namely, that all truth is a unit. No man is 
competent to say this is the greatest of all temples, unless he 
has a knowledge of all temples on the face of the Earth ; 
and no one can say this is the greatest of the truths of God, 
except He who is Himself God's Truth. 

A great scientist was handed a single bone and asked 
to name the creature to which it belonged. He examined 
it carefully- and answered, It does not belong to any known 
living animal. Later he said. It does not belong to any 
known extinct animal. Still later he drew the outline of 
an animal which no one had ever seen, and said. It belonged 
to a genus of animals resembling this. What was the basis 
of his answer? 

A bone is what it is because of its relation to other bones. 
It is a part of a larger unit, an animal. Its place and func- 
tion in the larger unit decides its size and shape and makes 
it what it is. He only who knows its relation to the ani- 
mal unit, and the relation of that animal unit to the unity 
of the animal kingdom, is capable of understanding a 
single bone as the great scientist understood it. 

Each separate truth is what it is because of its relation to 
other truths. It is part of a larger unit of truth, and this 



28 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

larger unit of truth is itself but a fragment of revealed truth. 
So, all revealed truth is itself but a portion of that whole- 
ness of truth which we shall know when we see the Divine 
Teacher face to face. Therefore to interpret any statement 
of truth without regard to its relation to other truths is to 
misinterpret it. For every statement of truth is necessarily 
a part -statement ; its real meaning is conditioned by the 
larger truth of which it is a fragment. 

Christ knew that in saying, even of the most fundamental 
truth, ' ' this is the first and greatest, ' ' there was danger 
that man would ignore its relation to all truth, and use it 
to contradict all other truth. Therefore He added, ^ ' there 
is a second Commandment ' ' equally first and greatest ; and 
without it, the first cannot be rightly understood or inter- 
preted. When we recall that in past times men burned 
their neighbors to compel them to love God, and to-day men 
are turning their backs upon God in order to show their love 
for their neighbors, we see why Christ would not separate 
the two great commandments. We also see that He was 
carefully guarding this principle of interpretation : Each 
and every statement of truth is a ^art-statement and there- 
fore has its limitations. 

From Christ's application of the above principle, we see 
that even the most basic truths which the mind of man is 
capable of grasping, are not complete in themselves. They 
need for their right interpretation, the limiting and enlight- 
ening power of those like truths to which they are closely 
related. If this be true of equal and ' ' like ' ' truths how 
much more is it true of unlike and lesser truths. Yet 
throughout the whole ministr}^ of Christ the Jews contended 
that our Lord was a lawless man, because He healed the sick 
on the Sabbath. 



OUR LORD'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 29 

The Master did not deny the laws of the Sabbath, but He 
did deny that the Sabbath law was the '^ first and greatest " 
of alUaws. He held that the law of man's love to man, and 
of man's love to God, were both more fundamental than the 
law of the Sabbath. He held that man was not created for 
the welfare of the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was or- 
dained for the welfare of man. Therefore, it was " lawful 
to do good on the Sabbath Day. ' ' And in His acts of mercy 
and words of wisdom He made plain one application of an- 
other great principle, namely : — Fundamental truths neces- 
sarily limit and qualify the interpretation of all other truths. 

In studying the words of Christ no thoughtful person can 
fail to be impressed by comparing two statements of the 
Master, one made at the very beginning and the other at the 
very end of His ministry. (Matt. 3 : 15, and John 16 : 12.) 
His words to the Baptist, ' ' It becometh us to fulfil all right- 
eousness ' ' are familiar. We know that the revelation of the 
Gospel is the fulfilment of Old Testament revelation ; but 
it comes as a surprise when Christ on one of the last days of 
His earthly life, turns, not to strangers, but to those who 
had been His companions and pupils for nearly three years, 
saying, '' I have many things to say unto you, hut ye cannot 
hear them now. ' ' Yet what a light does this incident throw 
upon the method of the Master, upon the loving carefulness 
with which, little by little. He had given them God's truth as 
their earth clouded hearts were prepared to receive and to 
understand it. How plainly it tells us that the principle 
which underlies the revelation of the Old Covenant also 
underlies the New. The Father through lawgivers and 
prophets, and the Son through His own words and life, have 
gradually revealed the truth to man as he was able to bear 
it. In other words the divine principle is: — '^ All Bevela- 



30 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

tion is progressive^ the later truth is necessarily the more 
coiYiplete truth. ' ' 

Prejudice, partizanship, pride, — these have been in the 
past and are in lesser degree to-day, the dominant forces 
that make for misinterpretation. Yet God overrules man's 
narrowness, even man's wickedness for the advancement of 
His truth. It was the contradictions of His enemies that 
moved our Lord to make plain His principles of historical 
interpretation. 

The last day of His public teaching (Mark 12 : 18) the 
Sadducees came to the Master with the story of the woman 
who had been the wife of seven. They thought their 
foolish fable an unanswerable argument against the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, but Christ calmly answered, '^Have ye 
not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake 
unto him, saying ' I am the God of Abraham, and the God 
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of 
the dead but of the living.' " The brevity of Christ's 
reply hides from the careless reader the force of an argu- 
ment which came to His Hebrew hearers with irresistible 
power. When God spoke to Moses Abraham had been 
dead 300 years. Therefore, according to the Sadducean 
teaching, Abraham for that length of time had ceased to 
exist. 

The rebuke of Christ was needed : * ' Ye know not the 
Scriptures, neither the power of God." The Sadducees 
were recognized leaders and teachers. They were per- 
fectly familiar with the words Christ quoted, yet they had 
not seen the force of God's words. They had ignored the 
time, the condition, and the circumstances under which 
they were uttered. The words of Holy Scripture are in- 
terpreted foolishly or falsely whenever they are considered 



OUR LORD'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 31 

apart from their historical relation. The principle of the 
Master is : — All Inspired Statements Must he Interpreted 
Historically. The meaning of doubtful words or phrases 
is determined hy the historical conditions under which they 
were uttered. 

The argument of Christ against the Sadducees is most 
important. It is based on divine principles, too large to 
be exhausted by the above statement. In every age there 
have been men who imagined that they had discovered con- 
tradictions in the words of Christ. But if we are foolish 
enough to imagine that one statement of the Master can con- 
tradict another, it is because we are foolish enough to take 
it for granted that we Ttnow all truth, and therefore are 
competent to say that whatever is a contradiction to us is a 
contradiction of the Son of God. Verbal contradictions are 
not necessarily contradictions of truth, either in chemistry, 
mathematics, or Holy Scripture. 

The teacher puts his thought into words and speaks them. 
The idea they start in the hearer's mind, is not the teacher's 
idea but the hearer's idea. It is never exactly the same as 
the teacher's idea. The meaning which the teacher puts 
into his words is decided by his experience ; and the inter- 
pretation a hearer puts upon the same words is decided by 
his experience. Other things being equal, the greater the 
gulf between the experience of the teacher, and that of the 
hearer, the greater will be the gulf between the truth 
spoken and the truth received. If we, in any measure, 
realize the vastness of the gulf between our own limitations 
and the wisdom of the Son of God, we shall be slow to 
pronounce any saying of Christ "a contradiction." 

To the Sadducees, proud and confident of their own 
knowledge, Christ said, '^ Ye do err, not knowing the Scrip- 



32 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

tures. ' ' His words to them are His words to every man 
who makes his own ignorance of God's truth the foundation 
on which to build an argument against the words of God's 
Son. But the Son has Himself given us the standard hy 
which to test His words. The reiterated claim of Christ is 
that His life and teachings are one. If there be any 
recorded words attributed to Him which are contradicted by 
His life, then we should be justified in rejecting them. 
Have you ever found such words? 

We are now ready to accept our final interpretive prin- 
ciple. It may well be expressed in these words : — Oior 
Lord'^s Teaching cannot contradict His life. Seeming con- 
tradictions arise from the limitations of human sjpeech^ the 
limitations of human knowledge ^ or the ^artialness of divine 
revelation. 

We have now completed our search for the interpretive 
principles of the Master. Before we enter upon the next 
stage of our study, let us re-state what we have already 
accomplished. We are to study 

THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

The Basic Principle : Our Lord's Words must always he interpreted hy 
Our Lord's Life. 

Our Lord's Interpretive Principles. 

I. All Inspired Truth is not equally important. 

II. The most fundamental truths are those which 
reveal {a) the Person of God, (5) the nature of 
Man, {c) Man's relation to God, and {d) Man's 
relation to his neighbor. 

III. Every statement of truth is a partial statement 

and therefore has its limitations. 

IV. Fundamental truths, necessarily limit and qualify 

the iuterpretation of all other truths. 



OUR LORD'S PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 33 

Our Lord's Interpretive Principles. 

V. All Revelation is progressive : the later truth is 
necessarily the more complete truth. 

VI. All Inspired Statements must be interpreted 
historically. The meaning of doubtful words 
is determined by the conditions under which 
they were uttered. 

VII. Our Lord's teaching cannot contradict His Life. 
Seeming contradictions arise from (a) the limita- 
tions of human language, (b) the limitations of 
human knowledge, or (c) the partialness of the 
divine records. 

The above principles are to be our guide in all our 
studies. If you are not sure that you understand them, or 
the authority on which they are founded, turn back and 
carefully re-read this chapter. We shall have occasion to 
refer to these principles many times. If you commit them 
to memory it will help you in later studies. 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

Before you take up the study of the next chapter write down the partic- 
ulars in which the Jews differed from the other nations. What was the 
purpose of the Old Covenant? What were Jewish conditions between 
Malachi and John Baptist? Note what you know about the Sadducees. 
Also of the Pharisees. What relation did Christ's teaching bear to theirs ? 
To the teaching of the Prophets? Study each of these subjects sepa- 
rately, and carefully. We must have some knowledge of the historical 
conditions under which Christ taught or we cannot understand His words, 
or jffm. A Bible dictionary is the best aid. There are brief " helps " at 
the back of all good Bibles. 



CHAPTEE TV. 

OUR LORD'S WORDS AND THE TEACHING OF HIS AGE. 

Our Lord's Words must be Interpreted Historically. 

The Sadducees failed to understand God's words at the 
burning bush because they ignored the time, and circum- 
stances under which they were uttered. For the same 
reason many fail to understand Christ's words to-day. We 
forget that the Master's words were spoken to Jewish ears, 
to be interpreted by Jewish experience and Jewish religious 
standards. • We forget that Christian ideals, and Christian 
conceptions of righteousness did not exist in the time of 
Christ. 

The only way to enter into the heart of teaching ad- 
dressed the Hebrew ears two thousand years ago, is to 
put ourselves in the Hebrew's place, listen with Hebrew 
ears, and interpret by means of Hebrew ideals, conceptions, 
and experiences. The way to misunderstand the Master's 
words is to listen with Twentieth Century ears, and inter- 
pret by the ideals and conceptions of to-day. 

The Early Historical Condition of the Jews. We are 
what the past has made us. So were the Jews in the time 
of Christ. The Hebrew JS'ation differed from all other 
races on the earth ; differed in its origin, and in its relation 
to Jehovah. The Hebrews were an unique race ; separated 
from all peoples by their God, their religious conceptions, 
their moral laws, and their peculiar politico-religious ideals, 
hopes, and delusions. If we could put three years of study 

34 



OUR LORD'S WORDS AND THE TEACHING OF HIS AGE. 35 

on the Old Testament, we would better understand the 
religious atmosphere in which Christ taught, and the 
dominant Jewish concepts of life and duty which helped, or 
hindered His hearers in understanding His words. 

If ever a people was created to do a great work for God, 
it was the Children of Israel. They were, in Abraham, 
separated from other nations and bound to God in sacred 
covenant. They received, through Moses, a divinely or- 
dained moral law, priesthood, and system of worship. 
They were, through Samuel, given an order of holy 
Prophets, divinely inspired to teach the will of God. They 
were made a great and glorious nation, of which God Him- 
self was King. When they despised the goodness of God 
and rebelled against His laws, He again and again punished 
them with defeat and captivity. "When Israel repented and 
returned to obedience, God again and again restored to 
them their land, and the cities of their fathers. TMs was 
the favored and disobedient, disciplined and forgiven people 
to whom Christ came. They ought to have been better 
prepared for His coming than any other people on the face 
of the earth. Were they? 

Jewish Conditions between Malachi and John the 
Baptist. The voice of prophecy, the voice of spiritual up- 
lift, was silent. It was a period of four hundred years of 
spiritual decay for the Jewish people, of alternating political 
freedom and bitter bondage for the Jewish nation. Their 
one hope was in the promises of Jehovah ; their one great 
longing was for the promised Messiah. But the ' ' Messiah ' ' 
and ' ' King ' ' they intensely longed for was to be a political 
leader, a ''Son of David" who would destroy their op- 
pressors, and restore in earthly greatness and power the 
ancient throne of Israel. There was no national drawing 



36 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

near to God — no spiritual desire for victory over pride and 
oppression, over injustice, lust, or self -righteousness. 

Before the Christ was born the Jews had spread over all 
the world. There were 700,000 Jews in Palestine. 
There were over six times that number outside of it. 
Everywhere they remained Jews, clung to their Messianic 
hopes, built their synagogues, and worshipped God after 
the manner of their fathers. They held high commercial 
and social positions, yet they considered Judea their home. 
They were proud of Jerusalem, attended its feasts, or sent 
contributions to sustain them. They despised heathen 
worship, yet they adopted the intellectual culture of the 
Greeks, and translated their Scriptures into Greek. 
Everywhere the great truths of the Jewish religion were 
known to the educated. Everywhere were thoughtful 
Gentiles who turned from heathenism and became Jewish 
proselytes, and looked for a coming Messiah. 

The Fulness of Time, was the hour of the fulness of hu- 
man need, and the fulness of divine preparation. The 
world was unconsciously waiting for the hour of the Messiah. 
The strange fact is that every nation on the earth was 
more willing to welcome the Messiah than the Jewish 
nation. <' He came unto His own, and His own received 
Him not. ' ' And what is still more striking is the fact that 
this nation which refused to accept its own Spiritual King, 
had been itself an active factor in preparing all other 
nations to accept the teaching of ' ' The King of the Jews. ' ' 

Conditions Created by the Sadducees. These were the 
aristocrats of their day. They were largely members of 
priestly families. They had almost a monopoly of the high- 
priesthood ; they possessed large political power. They 
were rich, proud, and socially exclusive. In religion they 



OUR LORD'S WORDS AND THE TEACHING OF HIS AGE. 37 

were materialists. For them there was no future life, no 
resurrection, no eternal rewards or penalties ; no angels, no 
spirits, no soul, or if there was one, it perished with the 
body. 

At first the Sadducees regarded the teachings of the 
Master with indifference or contempt ; but when He drove 
the money-mongers out of the Temple courts He touched 
their prerogatives and their purses, and they became His 
open enemies. Yet these were the men who filled the 
highest priestly offices and shaped the devotions of Israel ! 

Conditions Created by the Pharisees. These were the 
teachers of Israel and shaped the morals of the E'ation. 
They were Separatists, too holy to associate with Gentiles 
or Samaritans, Publicans or sinners. Whatever was non- 
Jewish in religion was to them despicable and unclean. 
Except a few thousand Sadducees, and a group of politi- 
cians, free-thinkers, and sensualists, called Herodians, the 
Jews blindly followed the teachings of the Pharisees. They 
were the expounders of the Law, the Jesuits of Israel ; its 
official saints, its shining examples of righteousness. 

The doctrines of the Sadducees were contradicted by 
those of the Pharisees. These taught the immortality of 
the soul, the resurrection of the body, the coming judgment, 
and everlasting rewards and penalties. They believed in 
angels and spirits ; expected a Messianic King who would 
deliver them from the Komans, restore the throne of David, 
and reign in Jerusalem. They believed that the new King- 
dom of the Messiah would be a kingdom of saints, and they 
were the saints ! For were not they the only ones who 
kept the whole Law? "What the last of the great Hebrew 
Prophets thought of both of these sects is best expressed by 
himself. * ' When John saw many of the Pharisees and 



38 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Sadducees come to his baptism he said unto them, O genera- 
tion of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath 
to come? " 

How did the Pharisees keep the Law? According to its 
very letter, as expounded by Scribes and lawyers. For 
them it was a law of externals ; it touched neither inner 
motive nor inner morality. It concerned their punctilious 
doing of empty trifles. It exalted ceremonial over conduct : 
behavior over holiness. Its whole tendency was to make 
not saints but hypocrites. They elaborated and applied the 
Law to regulate every possible action under every possible 
condition. 

Note for example, how they made God's Law ridiculous. 
The quantity of food allowed to be carried on the Sabbath 
must be less than a dried fig ; of honey, only enough to 
anoint a wound ; of water, only enough to make eye salve. 
To kindle, or to extinguish a fire was to break the Sabbath ; 
so according to most Kabbis, to give medicine to a sick man, 
set his bones, or dig a dead man out of the ruins of his 
fallen house, made one a Sabbath breaker. Absurd rules 
were given as to what knots could be tied, or untied on the 
Sabbath day. A camel's or a sailor's knot was forbidden. 
A knot that could be loosed with one hand, or one to fasten 
on a sandal, was permitted. To write two letters of the 
alphabet with the hand was to profane the Sabbath, but if 
they were written with the mouth, or the foot, they were 
not illegal ! 

And all this (and very much more equally absurd) was 
''keeping the Law of God," was following righteousness, 
was an exhibition of holiness, was piling up merits against 
the day of judgment ! Do you wonder that the common 
folk marvelled at the teaching of Christ ? Or that they 



OUR LORD'S WORDS AND THE TEACHING OF HIS AGE. 39 

exclaimed in astonishment <'He teacheth not as the 
Scribes ! ' ' Do you wonder that the Pharisees vehemently 
denounced the Son of Man as a Sabbath breaker? Could 
even the Christ enter this atmosphere, reeking with false 
teaching, and not find His own teaching made difficult? 

The Master's Methods were determined by the historical 
conditions of His age. The false teachers of Israel had for 
generations poisoned the minds of the people. They had 
degraded their religion and their morals. Worse than that, 
they had degraded the language of religion ; so that the 
very words in which men spoke of God, and which should 
have drawn men to God, separated their souls from God. 
Do you realize the great difficulty created by these condi- 
tions? For the Master to have expressed Himself in the 
words of the Pharisees would have been to spread their 
falsehoods, not to teach His own truths. What was He to 
do? 

The Master is the one perfect Teacher for all time. No 
other knew His hearers as He knew them. ISTo other with 
such absolute perfection fitted His words to the hearts of His 
hearers. This is s«en in the Master's avoidance of all Jew- 
ish theological terminology ; His large use of parables ; His 
constant use of illustrations from daily life; His general 
avoidance of teaching on the externals of religion; His 
carefulness to teach nothing before His hearers were *'able 
to bear it. ' ' His great care to keep the ' ' Kingdom of 
God ' ' separate from the kingdoms of this world, from the 
contamination of political plots, and earthly ambitions ; and 
His constant emphasis upon the supreme importance of 
spiritual worship, and the spiritual realities of the world to 
come is plain to every careful student. 

When the Master has but one pupil, whether a member 



40 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

of the Jewish hierarchy, a simple Samaritan, or a hmnble 
disciple searching for truth, His task is easy. lie had only 
to adapt His words to a single questioner whose needs He 
knew, — indeed, knew so perfectly that He answers not the 
words of the questioner's lips, but the very thought of his 
heart which prompted his questioning. We may know 
nothing of the wayside traveller to whom Christ speaks, yet 
if we realize that in every case the Master perfectly fitted 
His words to that individual's particular needs, we shall find 
in His words are not alone an expression of His marvellous 
wisdom, but a revelation of the motive and character of the 
man to whom He speaks. 

When Christ stands before a company of simple, or 
devout souls like Zacharius and Elizabeth, Simeon and 
Anna, Andrew and Philip or JS"athaniel, He speaks freely 
of the truths dear to His heart. Such hearers understood 
His words; and we, two thousand years later, read and 
understand them to-day. When, however, Christ stands 
before a mixed company of Scribes, Pharisees and Lawyers, 
Sadducees, Herodians and Zealots His teaching problem is a 
very different one, and our difficulty in interpreting His 
words to-day is correspondingly increased. 

No religious teaching of Christ's day was, in theory, so 
close to His own as that of the Pharisees. Yet no other 
sect did our Lord so utterly condemn. Why? Because 
although the Pharisees pretended to teach the Law of God, 
their interpretations emptied it of all meaning, or contra- 
dicted its real teaching. The general effect of their Jesuiti- 
cal interpretations was to put darkness for light, and to turn 
righteousness into a gilded lie, or a pretentious sham. 

The historical fact that God raised up the prophets pur- 
posely to expound His laws, and pronounce His judgments 



OUR LORD'S WORDS AND THE TEACHING OF HIS AGE. 41 

on both priests and people ; and the additional fact that the 
prophet was God's chosen mouthpiece, these truths the 
Pharisees carefully ignored. Their constant question was, 
not what saith the prophets of God, but what say the 
Scribes, the great Eabbis, the Doctors of the Law? 

The Basis of our Lord's Teaching was that of the 
Prophets of Israel. Where the prophet's word ended, there 
the word of Christ began. The Prophet emphasized the 
moral and spiritual nature of God, His absolute holiness, 
purity, truth, justice, and mercy. On these qualities also 
fell the emphasis of the teaching of God's Son. The Prophet 
demanded the highest morality of man, of society, of 
the Kation. He demanded honesty, sincerity in worship, 
chastity and charity. He denounced luxury, oppression 
hypocrisy, and aU uncleanness. Are not these also the 
calls, and the condemnations of the Kingdom of God? 

The prophets had a passion for truth. They were 
strenuous for the righteousness of the Nation. Israel had 
not been called of God for her own sake, and must not live 
for her own glory. Her mission was to aU the nations of 
the earth. " Salvation was of the Jews," but not for the 
Jews alone. Jehovah was God of all. He alone could be 
man's Deliverer and Saviour. The Redeemer would sud- 
denly come to God's Temple. His Kingdom would be an 
everlasting kingdom, and His Kame should be great among 
the Gentiles. 

All that the prophets taught, the Messiah taught with 
greater clearness, and more splendid power. All that the 
prophets saw afar off. He realized in His own blessed life. 
He lived their ideals. He was the Incarnation of their 
highest and holiest aspirations. He was God's Answer to 
all their hopes, and prayers and visions. The prophets 



42 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

were the lips of God speaking His truth. The Son of Man 
was Himself The Truth of God living among men. 



CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

Read the prophecy in St. Luke 1 : 57-80. Study it. Shut your eyes and 
picture it. Do it again and again until you catch its spirit. Then read 
the history in St. Luke 3:1-18. If you have prepared yourself devoutly, it 
will come to you with new force and meaning. Then read the prophetic 
and historic climax of St. John's ministry and the Beginning of Our Lord's, 
as found in St. Matt. 3:17 to 4:1-11. Count up the different revelations 
at the Jordan. Is truth constructive, or destructive ? What reason had 
the Jews for saying that Christ destroyed the Law ? Write out your an- 
swers for future reference. To unlearn is often the beginning of knowl- 
edge. 



CHAPTEE y. 

OUR LORD'S TEACHING AND OLD TESTAMENT TRUTH. 

Kepent ! *' Eepent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand. ' ' So came the voice of one crying in the wilderness 
after four hmidred years of prophetic silence. It was the 
voice of a new hope, and a new life. Had not all the 
prophets foretold a coming Messiah? The Lord is at hand ! 
So came the word of St. John to the common people of 
Judea. Their answer was instant. They flocked to his 
open-air confessional, to his baptism, and eagerly prayed 
for the coming Kingdom. 

The Mission of St. John was clear. Kone understood it 
better than himself. He was one sent from God to prepare 
the way of the Lord ; the way which leads into the hearts of 
God's people. It was the highway of the prophets, but it 
had been for centuries so utterly neglected that it was 
unusable. St. John restored the ancient paths. He did 
his work without fear, and without favor. He did it with 
a noble humility. 

Then, with an eager expectancy, St. John looks beyond 
the crowds that flock to his baptism. His eye and ear are 
alert. He is watching for the coming of his Lord. This is 
the end and crown of aU his labors. That he may recognize 
the Messiah amid the multitudes, God had promised him a 
sign. By prophetic intuition the Baptist recognizes in Jesus 
of Nazareth one holier than himself. ISTay, come not Thou 
to my baptism. <^ I have need to be baptized of Thee and 

43 



44 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

comest Thou to me? " But Jesus answered, ^' Suffer it to 
be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. ' ' 
He suffered Him. Then came to St. John the sign prom- 
ised of God, the descending Dove ; the Yoice from Heaven. 
St. John knew that he had baptized the promised Messiah, 
and that his own mission was fulfilled. 

The Threefold Revelation at the Jordan. In the whole 
life of the Son of Man there is no event more momentous, 
than that which occurred at the Jordan, save the one which 
hallowed the Hill of Calvary ; for as the acorn holds in its 
heart the living oak, so the self -surrender and self-consecra- 
tion of the Baptism included the surrender and consecration 
of the Cross. 

The Revelation of the Messiah came from God to St. 
John. It satisfied him. His own eyes saw the opened 
Heaven and the descending Dove. To the official delega- 
tion sent from the authorities of the Temple, he answered 
emphatically ^ ' 1 am not the Messiah, " * ' I baptize with 
water, but there stand eth One among you whom ye know 
not." <'The same is He that baptizeth with the Holy 
Ghost." To his own disciples he said of the Messiah, 
<* Behold the Lamb of God." *' He must increase, but I 
must decrease. He that cometh from above, is above all." 

The Revelation of the Messiah's Nature was also from 
God. The words which St. John heard from heaven for- 
ever settled the question of the Messiah's Person. *< This 
is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. ' ' From the 
prophets (whose words had been his study from childhood) 
St. John knew that the Messiah was to be * ' a prophet like 
unto Moses, ' ' was to be '' the Son of David, ' ' the King of 
a new and glorious nation, the " Deliverer of Israel " from 
spiritual bondage. But * ' My Beloved Son ! ' ' That opened 



OUR LORD'S TEACHING AND OLD TESTAMENT TRUTH. 45 

to the eyes of St. John a new and unexpected vision. The 
Son of God, and yet the Lamb of God ! 

To us, more than to the Baptist, the words of the Father 
are a revelation of the source of the Son of Man's divine 
knowledge, the foundation of His authority, the certainty of 
His teaching. It was the revelation of God Himself. The 
hunger of the human heart is not to know words about God, 
or to hear of the Almighty's power, but to know the Father 
of Spirits in His relation to our own spirit, and this is our 
Jordan revelation. God's divine Son is one with the 
Father; God's human Son is one with us. He is bone of 
our bone and flesh of our flesh. In the Son's tender love, 
His tireless sympathy. His strong guidance, and power to 
restore, we see God walking among men and drawing them 
to Himself by the strong cords of human love. 

The Revelation of the Messiah's Mission : — Because the 
Babe of Bethlehem was born King of the Jews, neither His 
oflice, nor Ministry, nor Mission were His own. Before He 
was born He was set apart and dedicated to the finishing of 
His Father's work. When found in the manger He was 
first of all, a part of the past of the Hebrew l^ation. He 
also belonged to, and was a part of all that nation's future. 
He was Himself the living foundation of a new theocracy, 
a new line of spiritual Kings, Priests and Prophets. His 
appearance at the Jordan marked the end of the old, and 
the beginning of the new Kingdom of God. 

'* I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou 
to me? " these words of the Baptist were not contradicted. 
His words were true. He had proclaimed that his was a 
baptism of water, not of the Holy Spirit ; was a baptism 
unto repentance, not into the Kingdom of God. ' ' Suffer it 
to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil aU righteous- 



46 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

ness." In this answer of the Sinless One, we have a clear 
vision of the supreme purpose of the Ministry of Jesus Christ. 
Study it in the light of the Father's teaching and training of 
the Hebrew race. Study it in the light of the Son's most 
holy life, and we shall see His one aim. The supreme 
purpose of Christ's life is to do His Father's will, and finish 
His Father's work. 

The Father's Unfinished Work. Before the Christian 
Era a devout seeker for light is handed a copy of the Hebrew 
Scriptures. He begins at Genesis and carefully reads the 
Story of the Creation, and fall of Man. The promise 
Jehovah makes to Eve claims his reverent attention. 
One born of woman is to come ; is to conquer and restore, 
through suffering. He finds in later chapters this divine 
promise enlarged, and repeated. He reads that the Coming 
One is to be the Head of a chosen family. He is to come as 
a Prophet, and Law Giver like unto Moses. Later he reads 
that the Coming One will be the Head of a chosen Nation ; a 
Eoyal Conqueror. So the devout Gentile reads on, finding 
in every book of the Prophets additional particulars. Yet, 
as he finishes the last pages of Malachi he realizes that the 
divine promises are unfulfilled. 

He begins again and follows a new clew, the use of sacri- 
fices as an act of worship. He notes their divine origin ; 
their initial simplicity, their gradual development, their use 
in the Covenant promises made with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob. He notes the dramatic character of the Sacrifice of 
the Passover, its sprinkling of the blood, and its mysterious 
teaching that the blood is the life. He is interested in the 
wonderful sacrifices connected with the Tabernacle, their 
unity and system, their dramatic beauty and mystery. But 
what are they for? What is their real, their inner mean- 



I OUR LORD'S TEACHING AND OLD TESTAMENT TRUTH. 47 

ing? Of what benefit are they? How can the offering of 
the life of a lamb help the life of a man? The truth-seeker 
reads on, and on, but he finds no answer to his questions. 
Again he finishes the last chapter of the Prophets, yet the 
divine worship remains unexplained. 

Once more our earnest student returns to the Hebrew 
Scriptures and reads again. Now he is impressed by its 
record of many righteous souls who (like himself) were seek- 
ing to find God, and to understand His ways. He finds 
them even in Genesis and once and again in later historical 
books. Their heart's cry for God, — *'Even for the 
living God," is heard in the Psalms, in Job, and in all the 
Prophets. Why does the Coming One so long delay His 
coming? Why are not God's promises fulfilled? Many are 
the blessings of the righteous, but man's highest and 
deepest longings are left unsatisfied. 

What has the devout student found in his threefold search? 
He has found that the Hebrew Scriptures are — A record 
of promises and prophecies, unfulfilled; of offerings and 
sacrifices, unexplained; of spiritual longings, unsatisfied. 
Plainly God's work is unfinished; but who can be its com- 
pleter, and fulfiller? *' Suffer it to be so now, for thus it 
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. " These words are a 
full disclosure of the Messiah's Mission, — the sublime pur- 
pose of the Son of Man, — the end for which He lived and 
for which He died was — *< to fulfil all righteousness." 

God's righteousness had been revealed for thousands of 
years. It had never been fulfilled. Nay more, — it had 
never h^Qn fully revealed. The spiritual depths of the Old 
Covenant promises had never been sounded. The spiritual 
meaning of the Law waited for its True Interpreter. The 
mystery of its sacred sacrifices waited for an High Priest, 



48 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

holy enough to reveal the fulness of their meaning. The 
saints of all ages had waited, hoped, hungered and thirsted, 
after God's righteousness, but had found no one whose per- 
fect life and perfect knowledge of the Father's will qualified 
Him to complete God's eternal purpose. 

The Absolute Loyalty of the Son. The words of Jesus 
at the Jordan, read in the light of His wonderful ministry, 
identify His purpose with His Father's purpose, and make 
His mission as world-wide and age-long as God's. No man 
ever dared to set before himself so vast a work ; no man ever 
began his work so humbly. By receiving the Baptism of 
water Jesus identifies himself with the work of the Baptist, 
for this also is His Father's work. For the fulfilling of 
His own work, He receives the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

The teaching of our Lord is a spiritual interpretation of 
the teaching of His Father's Covenant. All inspired rev- 
elation is progressive. If a human being is to receive any 
revelation from God it must be adapted to human limitations. 
It cannot be given any faster than man is able to understand 
it. Therefore, we find that God's Old Covenant revelation 
is not an outburst of blinding light, but a gradual spiritual 
illumination. The Father's reason for the incompleteness 
of revelation is plainly spoken by the Son. < ' I have many 
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." 

It was to the fulfilling and completing of this progressive 
Eevelation of the Father that the Son loyally consecrated 
His life at the Jordan. It was His joy to say at the be- 
ginning of His ministry ^ ' My meat is to do the will of 
Him that sent me, and to finish His work." (Jn. 4: 34.) 
It was His joy to say at the e?id of His ministry : ** I have 
glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work 
which Thou ga vest me to do. (Jn. 17: 4.) It was the last 



OUR LORD'S TEACHING AND OLD TESTAMENT TRUTH. 49 

word, and the last joy of His earthly life to say from the 
cross : — '* It is finished ! " 

The Destructive Power of Truth : — The Jews accused 
the Son of Man of not keeping, even of destroying the Law. 
Jesus answers, " I am not come to destroy but to fulfil." 
(Matt. 5 : 17.) No words could be more emphatic, no words 
more true. And yet the accusation of the Jews was super- 
ficially correct. The power of truth to destroy everything 
that is untrue is as great as its power to conserve all that is 
essentially and eternally true. The teaching of the Christ 
was intended to destroy all the human glosses, Pharisaic 
traditions, and Eabbinical interpretations which the Jews 
(not Moses), had added to the divine Law, and many of 
which utterly perverted its meaning, or destroyed its God- 
given purpose. 

More than this, the growth of eternal truth not only de- 
stroys all that is untrue, — it destroys also whatever in earlier 
truth is partial and incomplete. The complete revelation 
always supersedes the partial. Christ, m fulfilling the an- 
cient Law, necessarily made of none effect all within it that 
was local or temporary. 

A certain Gentile had a fig-tree in his dooryard. One 
day while cutting off some of its branches, his neighbor, a 
very pious Jew, asked with surprise, '^ Why are you de- 
stroying your beautiful tree? " The owner answered "I 
am not destroying, I am pruning it, that it may bear fruit." 
The Jew exclaimed, '' Heaven forbid! Look at the great 
size of its branches and beauty of its leaves ! Will you 
foolishly destroy all these for the sake of a little fruit ? ' ' 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

What does St. John 1:10-11 mean ? How many times was Christ re- 
jected ? Study the relation of St. Luke 4: 16-30 to St. John 6: 41-42 and 



50 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

6 : 66-67, to St. John 12 : 37-40, and St. Matt. 21 : 33-43. Read the first four 
chapters of St. Luke ; then the first four of St. John. First read them 
intensely to get the historic and vivid picture. Then re-read them slowly 
seeking the personal spiritual message. Where did Christ find His first 
friends, and who were they ? Where His first and bitter foes V Who 
were the Master's first private pupils ? Write out their different char- 
acteristics. Which was given the harder lesson ? (St. John 2 and 4.) What 
part did His first friends take in the latter conversation ? 

What place do miracles occupy in Christ's teaching? Which is the 
greater miracle, an act of superhuman wisdom, or of superhuman power ? 
Did Christ ever give truth or health to the unwilling ? What was the 
social attitude of Jewish Teachers ? Of the Christ ? Write a comparison 
of them. 



CHAPTEE YI. 

TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 

We have accepted as the basis of our study of the 
Master's teaching this principle — Our Lord's words must be 
interpreted by our Lord's life. His life on earth was a 
perfectly human life (sin excepted). It was lived under 
perfectly human conditions. This means that His teaching, 
like that of every human instructor had (a) its beginning, (b) 
its development, (c) its culmination, and (d) its close. More- 
over, at each stage, the instruction was conditioned by the 
period in which it was given. Have you noted this in your 
reading? 

The Four Stages of Our Lord's Teaching. If I ask you 
at what stage of His teaching did the Master say ' ' Kender 
therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," 
Can you tell me? Or when did He say, ^' The Kingdom 
of Heaven is like unto leaven " ? Or when did He say, 
"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations"? I can recall 
when I could not have answered any such questions. Tet 
the last saying could not have been spoken at any stage of 
His teaching except the one in which it was uttered. The 
second saying might have been spoken in the third or fourth 
stage of His instruction, but it could not have been uttered 
in the first. And while the words first quoted might have 
been uttered at any stage of His teaching, yet their deep 

51 



62 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

significance comes from the historical time, place and con- 
ditions that produced them.* 

Each stage of the Master's teaching is conditioned by the 
corresponding historical period of His Ministry. In relation 
to His teaching, we have named the first stage, The Period 
of Preparation ; the second stage. The Period of Organiza- 
tion; the third. The Period of Self- Manifestation ; the 
fourth, The Period of the Passion. The time covered by 
this first period is about twelve months, it extends from 
Our Lord's Baptism to His rejection at Nazareth. Its 
teaching took place mainly in Judea. 

Conditions under which the Christ began teaching: 
God had just pronounced Him His Son. The Baptist is 
ready to proclaim Him the Messiah. The Jewish Kulers 
are excited by the fearless teaching of the Baptist, and the 
eager expectancy of the people. The tempter waits in the 
wilderness to tempt and destroy. Under such conditions, 
every word of the Christ comes to us with an intensity of 
meaning equalled by no other period, except that which 
preceded His cross. We shall not really penetrate into the 
heart of this period unless the spirit of the period first 
penetrates into our hearts. 

First Words in the Wilderness, and the Temple. The 
Christ announced at the Jordan His life's one aim. His 
Father's will is His will. His Father's jpurjpose is His pur- 
pose. The Temptation is Satan's supreme effort to under- 
mine both will and purpose. If thou be the Son of God, 
command that these stones be made bread. But Jesus 

* For a full presentation of the natural divisions of our Lord's life and 
teaching, see the Author's earlier handbook, " How to Study the Life of 
Christ." As the conclusions of that volume are the foundations on which 
this one is built, its study ought to precede the use of this manual. 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 53 

answers ' * It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God." If thau trustest God cast thyself down from this 
pinnacle. '* It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the 
Lord thy God." Thou desirest a kingdom, worship me and 
I will give thee all the world and its glory. *' Get thee 
hence, Satan. ' ' Each word of the tempter is turned aside 
by <' the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 

Quick to repel a foe, Christ is equally quick to call a 
friend. (Jn. 1 :35-51) <' Master, where dwellest thou? " 
*^ Come and see." " Follow me." So the King began to 
call men and to train them to become disciples. Keen to 
detect the evil beneath the inspired words on the lips of the 
tempter, Christ is equally keen to detect the latent good in 
the brother of Andrew. Simon, ' ' Thou shalt be called 
Peter," and from that moment Simon Peter was under a 
divine training which outlasted the earthly life of his 
Teacher. (Acts 10 : 1-29) 

The words of Christ spoken to l^athaniel (Jn. 1 : 47,48), 
were to him a revelation of Jesus' superhuman knowledge. 
'' Kabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of 
Israel." This was the first confession of the Messianic 
ofiice of Jesus. He accepts it gladly ; yet, in doing so. He 
also corrects it. ISTathaniel's widest faith stopped within 
the bounds of Israel, but the vision of the Master was not 
thus limited. The vision promised to Nathaniel was not 
that of the ''King of Israel," but that of the ''Son of 
Man," i. e., the Universal Man, " the Word made Flesh." 
Kot the Jewish Christ, but the World-wide Christ. (Ps. 
144 : 5, Isa. 64:6) "The Son of Man" is the title con- 
stantly given by Christ to Himself. It occurs over seventy 
times during His early ministry. 



54 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

At His first Passover, the Christ made His earliest and 
bitterest foes. * ' Take these things hence, make not My 
Father's House a house of merchandise." (Jn. 2: 13-25) 
The words are few, but they carry a fearless intensity, and 
purpose characteristic of this period. His words are in- 
stantly challenged ; His authority indignantly demanded. 
For His words carried to Jewish ears far more than they 
bring to us. 

Kemember that even the Jewish children were familiar 
with the words of the Old Testament. The minds of the 
Eulers were full of them, particularly the ringing ones con- 
cerning the coming of the Messiah in His Kingdom. You 
remember also that these same Rulers had sent an oflBcial 
delegation to question the Baptizer (Jn. 1:19-27). But 
he had answered, '' I am not the Messiah," I am not 
Elijah ; I am a voice crying in the wilderness (as foretold 
by Isaiah), ^'Make straight the way of the Lord." The 
enigmatical form of the Baptist's reply only increased the 
Rulers' uneasiness. 

Moreover, these expounders of the Scriptures could not 
forget that the appearance of Elijah was to be followed by 
that of the Messiah, who would suddenly come to His 
Temple ; yes, come as a purifying fire ! Had the fire already 
come? Does this Galilean pretender claim to be a reformer? 
a Prophet? or the Messiah? In any case He must pro- 
duce His credentials! So the Temple's guardians indig- 
nantly demand ' ' What sign showest Thou unto us seeing 
thou doest these things? " 

'' Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it 
up." Even Christ's own followers did not understand 
these words. What wonder that officials, whose teaching 
emphasized superficial things and ignored spiritual truth. 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 55 

should hear in the Master's words merely a reference to the 
material Temple in which He was standing? 

But the words of our Lord have a larger meaning for us. 
The beginning prophesies the end and must be measured by 
the end. As the disciples understood Our Lord's words, 
after ''He was risen from the dead," so we understand 
them to-day. Standing upon the threshold of His ministry, 
the Christ clearly saw its end, and that end included His 
own death and resurrection. On these he saw reared a 
spiritual Temple that should need no rebuilding. 

First Private Instructions Concerning The Kingdom. 
*' Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born 
again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. ' ' The person to 
whom Christ spake was no curious seeker for superficial in- 
formation. A Euler of his Nation, a member of its highest 
council, a custodian of God's Temple, Nicodemus had been 
stirred by the preaching of the Baptist. He had accepted 
His word that the long-hoped-for Messiah was near. He 
knew that thousands of devout Jews had received John's 
baptism. He knew John denied being the Messiah. He 
knew that he who baptized with water, proclaimed a 
Messiah who should baptize with the Holy Spirit, and with 
fire. But a new prophet from Galilee had suddenly ap- 
peared, driven the traders from the Temple Courts, and done 
wonderful miracles in the streets of Jerusalem. What did 
it all mean? What sort of a kingdom was coming? What 
was the Prophet of Galilee's part in it? 

Such were the thoughts and questions which surged 
through the mind of Mcodemus as he sought Jesus of 
Nazareth ; it was to his thought and not to his polite words 
that our Lord with unerring accuracy, made answer. The 
Euler' s words are those of a man bewildered by many 



56 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 

teachers. The Master's words are those of authority, and 
certainty. The new kingdom can be entered in only one 
way, ' ' Yerily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be 
born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
Kingdom of God. ' ' The whole emphasis here, and in the 
next conversation, falls upon the spiritual nature of the 
Kingdom ; and what must follow, the Spiritual nature of 
the birth required for entrance. It at once lifts the new 
Kingdom above all Jewish speculation or expectation, either 
political or ecclesiastical. The Kingdom is not built upon 
flesh and blood, and those who are born of the flesh only, 
cannot enter it. God is Spirit, His Kingdom is spiritual ; 
the entrance must be by a spiritual birth. 

The words, ' ' by water and the spirit ' ' would turn the 
thoughts of ISTicodemus to the connection between the words 
of the Baptist and those of the Master, and help him to 
understand their meaning. The symbolic use of water in 
the religious purifications of the Jews, the water baptism of 
Gentile proselytes, the water baptism by John, after per- 
sonal confession, these were already in the mind of the 
Euler. And for this reason the Master dwelt not upon the 
outward and visible symbol, but upon the inward and invis- 
ible birth by the Spirit. ' ' Marvel not that I said unto thee, 
ye must be born again, the Spirit breatheth where He willeth, 
and thou hearest His voice, but cannot tell whence He 
cometh, or whither He goeth ; in like manner is everyone 
born of the spirit." — (Ellicott's translation). 

' ^ If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, 
how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? ' ' 
The Ruler of Israel is not given easy lessons, but deep 
spiritual truths which the Master uttered not again until 
near the close of His ministry ; i. e. the truth of the spir- 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 57 

itual omnipresence of the Son of Man, of the certainty of 
His death, of its world-wide results. 

The Master's conversation with the Samaritan woman is 
quite as remarkable as that with Xicodemus. Like that, 
the emphasis falls upon the spiritual nature and obligations 
of the comino: Kino^dom. Here aorain Our Lord reveals 
Himself to a single soul, and with a freedom and fullness 
which He withholds from the public. ' ' H thou knewest 
the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee. Give me 
to drink." — The thirsty soul stands before the Giver of 
Living Water, and, knowing it not, questions of earthly 
things. The Master's answer partially awakens her. She 
asks an ecclesiastical question. Again she receives a 
spiritual reply, an answer not to her words but to her needs, 
to her restless and thu^sty soul. "The hour cometh, and 
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father 
in Spirit and in Truth ; for the Lather seeketh such to wor- 
ship Him. God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him 
must worship Him in spirit and in truth. ' ' 

The teaching is clear. The worship that is acceptable to 
God, the Eternal Spirit, is not determined by the place 
where it is oifered, by the nationality of the worshipper, by 
his mental knowledge, by his liturgical methods nor the 
absence of them, nor by any other outward condition. The 
worshipper that God seeks, and accepts is the one 
who, recognizing God's true nature, as Lather and 
Eternal Spirit, offers Him the homage of a devout and 
childlike spirit. 

" Salvation is of the Jews.*' Do the words seem harsh? 
The Master cannot deny historical facts, or conditions. Little 
as they appreciated the treasure which they possessed, the 
Jews were the divinely appointed guardians of the ' ' Oracles of 



68 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 

God. ' ' Of the honor of their stewardship they were proud ; 
to its vast responsibilities they were blind. ' ' God is no 
respecter of persons. ' ' The sincere worship of the Samari- 
tan and the Jew are equally acceptable to the Father. 

" I that speak unto thee am He. " The Christ that is to 
come, the Messiah that you are expecting, is speaking to you. 
The sinful Samaritan woman is given a revelation of the 
office and mission of the Son of Man which He had with- 
held from the learned and pious Euler, and which he re- 
fused for another year to give to the Scribes and Pharisees ; 
though they persistently demanded it. There is such a thing 
as holding truth, even God's truth in falsehood. They who 
so hold it close the door against its light and life more effec- 
tually than those who are groping in ignorance and sin. 

Knowing that their Master was tired and hungry his fol- 
lowers prayed Him to partake of their purchased food. *' I 
have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do 
the will of Him that sent me." His reply should recall to 
us what He said at the Jordan, of the supreme purpose of 
His Ministry, mis loving but earth-bound followers, only 
asked the confidential question, ' ' Hath any man brought 
Him aught to eat? " He and they were standing side by 
side ; but they were living in different worlds, and being 
supported by different nourishment. 

That the Son of Man found in Samaria ^ ' Meat to eat ' ' 
which nourished His weary spirit, and made glad the heavy 
heart He brought from Jerusalem, is made evident by His 
spending two days in this field, '' White for the harvest." 
That He revealed to them the gospel of the Kingdom with 
loving fulness, is made plain by their own words, ' ' Now, 
we believe and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 59 

world ! ' ' Kote their words, not the Messiah of Israel, but 
the < * Saviour of the world. ' ' 

First Instruction by Miracles. When we stop to think 
of the measureless superhuman powers of the Christ, there is 
nothing more impressive than the frugality with which He 
uses them; — except His constant refusal to make miracles 
the source of Man's faith instead of its reward and blessing. 
*^ Go in peace, th}^ faith hath made thee whole," " As thou 
hast believed, so be it unto thee." So speaks the Son of 
Man, over and over again. 

Our Lord came into the world to reveal God to man. He 
did this by His words. His works. His personality. There 
is no essential difference between what we call Christ's 
''teaching " and Christ's " Miracles." In their relation to 
the will of the Father, and the work of the Son, they are 
one ; differing only in the method of their manifestation. 
The Son's manifestation of His superhuman knowledge of the 
Father's love, we call ' ' truth. ' ' His superhuman knowledge 
and use of the Father's power, we call " Miracles." They 
are both the expression of the Son's superhuman knowledge. 
They are both used in the same moral sphere, and for the 
same moral end, — the restoring of man to his normal relation 
to God. 

The man who has lost his right relation to God, either in 
soul or body, is the man who is being lost. The supreme 
mission of the Son is to restore man to his normal relation 
to the Father. The Son may do this by using His super- 
human knowledge of the Father's love, or the Father's 
power ; but in neither case will He do it without the desire 
and co-operation of man. 

God created man in physical and spiritual perfection. He 
created also what we call ''physical and spiritual law" 



60 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 

(the expression of His love) to keep man in that normal con- 
dition. Only by a perverse or ignorant use of God's laws 
can man destroy his health of soul or body. For the Son to 
use His superhuman knowledge to restore man to the place 
for which the Father created him, is simply to use His 
Father's laws for the very end and purpose for which the 
Father created them. It is just as much a natural act for 
the Son to restore a diseased body, as for Him to restore a 
diseased soul; and, measured by the Son's standard, the 
former is the lesser restoration. 

Interpreted hy His life^ the Son's words and deeds differ 
from each other, not in their end, only in the method of their 
manifestation. His daily life. His teaching, His works, are 
parts of one perfect whole. Human and superhuman in His 
Person, human and superhuman in His teaching. Human 
and superhuman in His deeds, the life of the Son of Man is 
a divinely natural consistent, and normal Unity. 

First Words and Works at Cana. The Master's words 
at the wedding feast are few, very few. But when we in- 
terpret them by the circumstances under which they were 
spoken they are of startling import. They mark more than 
the ' ' Beginning of Miracles. ' ' They mark the beginning 
of a separation between domestic and divine duty. They 
mark the beginning of that cleavage between the accepted 
teaching of the Scribes, and the new teaching of the 
Christ, a cleavage which grows wider and wider as the social 
and humane principles of the Kingdom became manifest. 
The Cana incident contradicted the Jews' fundamental con- 
ception of religion. It defied the teaching of the Pharisees ; 
for every Jew had from childhood been taught that ' ' Ee- 
ligion " meant, what the word '' Pharisee " meant, namely, 
'* Separation." 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 61 

The holiest men were those who were the most completely 
separated from all places, things, and persons that were not 
*' religious." The Baptist was a holy man, therefore he 
lived apart from all men. When the Messiah came He 
would be more holy, therefore more separated from all that 
was common and unclean, i. e. non-religious. But for one 
who did not separate himself from the unrighteous, a wine 
bibber, a friend of sinners, claiming to be the Messiah, — out 
upon it ! To think it is a sacrilege ! 

*' Woman, w^hat have I to do with thee? " ''• Woman " 
The term was loving and tender, the protest was gentle, 
yet it was a reminder that the day had passed when His 
duty called Him to ignore His '' Father's business," and go 
in subjection to Nazareth. Family relations might bind 
others, but for Him there was only One who could direct 
His activity. — His Father in Heaven. It was the first 
definition of the limitation of that holy and human relation- 
ship which had hitherto shaped and blessed His earthly life. 
Later He made the meaning of His words more clear. 
(Mark. 3 : 31-35). 

It was after His teaching in Jerusalem and Samaria that 
the Son of Man again returns to Cana. A nobleman comes 
beseeching Him to go down to Capernaum and heal his child. 
The Son of Man avoided a faith founded on miracles. In 
the Temple's courts the Eulers had demanded a miraculous 
sign to prove His authority. He had refused to thus 
degrade His mission. He also refused to trust the multi- 
tudes that followed because they saw His miracles of heal- 
ing. To Nicodemus, who confessed his visit was prompted 
by the miracles he had witnessed, the Master presented the 
most difl&cult truths of the Kingdom. The Samaritans alone 
were not miracle -seekers. To them alone He revealed His 
Messiahship. 



62 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

'< Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe." 
The words of the Master have a ring of sorrow. He is 
spiritually weary of the cry for a miraculous demonstration 
of His power. The Master's words intensified the Noble- 
man's entreaty. Oh, Eabboni, come with me. ''Come 
down ere my child die." <* Go thy way, thy son liveth." 
Our Lord refuses to go to Capernaum, refuses to allow the 
father to see a visible miracle, yet says — Thy prayer is 
granted ! The father's faith triumphed over sight, he ac- 
cepts the Master's word alone ; his absent son is restored 
' ' that very hour. ' ' 

The Master's Claim at Nazareth and Its Results. The 
Galileans were proud of their prophet. They gave Him 
their admiration, they gloried in His fame. He is wel- 
comed at E'azareth. He takes His former place at the 
synagogue lectern, reads from the Messianic prophecy of 
Isaiah, and begins to explain it. His words are gracious ; 
they are listened to with wonder and admiration. But 
what is this! The carpenter's son applying the prophet's 
portrait of the Messiah to himself? Sacrilege I But 
listen, listen to him ! 

* ' Yerily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his 
own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were 
in Israel in the days of Elijah . . . when great famine was 
throughout the land. But unto none of them was Elijah 
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman 
that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the 
time of Elisha the prophet ; and none of them was cleansed, 
saving ISTaaman the Syrian. ' ' 

Why this carpenter is putting himself beside Elijah and 
Elisha ! He is putting unclean Gentiles above the Children 
of Abraham ! He is teaching that heathen dogs have a 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 63 

place in the Kingdom of our Messiah ; a place above us ! 
His blood be upon his own pate ! (Luke 4 ; 29.) 

The first stage of our Lord's teaching is ended, ended by 
the rejection of Himself and His teaching. Well says St. 
John, " He came unto His own, and His own received Him 
not. ' ' The inspired words are true of the whole ministry 
of the Son of Man. As the first stage ended, so each sub- 
sequent stage ended, in the rejection of the Divine Teacher 
and His teaching. 

We have studied the brief record of this period more in 
detail than our space will allow us to do with any other. 
We have done so for two reasons, (a) As the first of a 
series of periods I wanted to help you to understand and 
follow historical methods of study ; to acquire the ability to 
get away from the printed page and enter into the historic 
conditions ; to become yourself a part of the environment in 
which the Master is teaching, and so get His point of view, 
and enter into the atmosphere in which the Jews lived and 
listened. For only thus can we receive the Master's mes- 
sage to Israel. His teaching holds for us a larger, a much 
larger message than it conveyed to His first hearers. Yet 
the Master's message to us cannot contradict His message 
to His own race. If our interpretation of His words is out 
of harmony with His original message, then it contradicts 
the teaching of the Master. 

The Essential Message of this Period is the same for the 
Jew and for the Christian. History and experience have 
flooded the Master's words with a light that was not on 
them in the days of Judaism. Ours is a larger message, 
yes, and a larger responsibility. Yet we are in danger of 
failing to comprehend the greatness of our blessing. We 
are so familiar with the words of the Master that we often 



64 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

fail to realize what a spiritual revolution they have wrought 
throughout the whole world of thought and life. 

The key-words of this period are " Spirituality," '^ Soci- 
ality ' ' and ' ' Universality. ' ' The ideas for which they 
stand were Christ's ideas; they were foreign to Jewish 
thought. The life of the typical Jew contradicted His 
teaching. The Jew was steeped in legalism, gloried in his 
exclusiveness, and was proud of his ecclesiasticism. 

Spirituality. At the Temptation, the Master depended 
upon spiritual bread, spiritual care, and spiritual force alone 
to win the world for God. It was the spiritual character 
of the Kingdom, of its subjects, of its birth, of its life that 
was emphasized by the Master. It was of life's spirit- 
ual water, of man's spiritual worship, of His own 
spiritual meat and drink, of the waiting spiritual harvest 
that our Lord discoursed beside the well of Jacob. And at 
ITazareth His first words are ' ' The Spirit of the Lord is 
upon Me. ' ' 

Sociality began when the Master began to call men. His 
followers were not servants nor monks, but His friends ; 
were such long before they were Apostles. Social duties 
were plainly acknowledged at Cana, while caste was as 
plainly ignored. It was the '' servants " who "knew " of 
the Master's power, hidden from governor and guest. The 
same condemnation of caste is plainly taught at Jacob's Well 
when our Lord trained a woman, a sinner, a Samaritan ! 
to be His first missionary. We dare not say "foreign mis- 
sionary," for to Him no land, no man, no needy soul is 
foreign. Yet the subordination of the highest domestic 
relations to divine obligations is clearly taught by His words 
to the Holy Mother at Cana. 

Universality was the note of His first instruction. Na- 
thanael was called to follow, not a Jewish Christ but the 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION. 65 

Universal Christ. Nothing could more clearly reveal the 
universal character of the Kingdom than the outward con- 
tradictions and inward unities of the Master's two personal 
instructions. A Kingdom comprehensive enough to ignore 
every line of earthly distinction between a learned and titled 
oificer of the Jewish ISTation, and an outcast and despised 
Samaritan ; and then reveal to each the very heart of the 
Kew Gospel, is certainly a Universal Kingdom. It was the 
Son of Man's insistence upon this universality at Nazareth 
which cost Him His rejection — and almost His life. 

Because this is the beginning of the Master's teaching, the 
foundation period of His whole ministry, He emphasizes 
those truths for which His Kingdom must stand or fall. 
There is no essential truth in all the later teaching of the 
Son of Man which does not find its beginning in this period. 
''Spirituality, Sociality, Universality," we accept these as 
the key- words of the Master's teaching. Have we also ac- 
cepted the ideals of life and duty for which they stand? 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

The next period is the most aggressive one in the Master's ministiy. Do 
not read the following chapter until you have prepared yourself to grasp the 
greatness of its subject. In what ways would you expect Capernaum's 
conditions to differ from Jerusalem's ? In what ways would you expect 
the Master's methods to differ? Make notes of the differences you 
discover. 

Read St. Luke 4:31 to 5:16. Try to see the new life and feel the new 
activity. "What was its effect upon the Jews ? Read St. Mark 2 : 1 to 3 : 6. 
St. Mark is a close observer of every move and look of Christ, are you ? 
Read St Mark again and make his pictures your own. Explain the dif- 
ference between St. John 1 : 35-51, St. Mark 1 : 16-20, and St. Luke 6 : 12-19. 
St. Luke 7 : 1 to 8 : 56 is the record of the Missionary schooling of the 
Twelve ; read it rapidly for its pictures and its unity of purpose. Then 
read it slowly to grasp its spiritual message — to you. Read St. Matthew 
14:13-23, and St. Mark 6:30-46. Why was this the msw of Christ's 
Ministry ? (St. John 6 :14-15.) 



CHAPTEK YII. 
TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 

This period extends from Our Lord's departure from 
Nazareth to His rejection at Capernaum. , The time covered 
is about fifteen months. The field is Galilee. Humanly 
speaking, it is the happiest period of the Master's ministry. 
It is the period in which we see most clearly the plan of His 
life-work, and the essentials of the Kingdom. He found 
Himself in a new moral atmosphere. The Galileans were 
eager to listen. For Him to teach was a joy. 

The Conditions under which He taught are themselves 
instructive. Judea was aristocratic, exclusive, steeped in 
the traditions of the Temple. The Scribe and the Pharisee 
dominated its thought, and degraded its worship. Its relig- 
ious atmosphere was stagnant with self-conceit and self- 
righteousness. In Galilee there was an atmosphere of 
freedom. The people were open-minded, warm-hearted, 
patriotic, and given to hospitality. There were nine or 
more flourishing cities on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. 
They were the centers of active trade and industry. Fish- 
eries, potteries, dye-houses and glass-works gave employ- 
ment to multitudes. The Son of Man chose for ^^ His own 
City ' ' , one that brought Him into contact with ' ^ Fisher- 
man's Clubs ", '' Ass Drivers' Associations " and ^' Fuller's 
Unions ", in touch with the moral and commercial problems 
of a thriving city. 

66 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 67 

The Constructive Unity of This Period is unmistakable. 

In Capernaum, the Master's words fall upon the ears of 
sympathetic listeners and enthusiastic followers. He feels 
the inspiration that comes from a morally tonic atmosphere. 
He adapts His words to the new attitude of His hearers. 
He moves among them with trustfulness. He teaches with 
greater freedom. He reveals more clearly the aim and pur- 
pose of His Kingdom. The Baptist had preached a coming 
Kingdom ; the Son of Man is working that there may be a 
Kingdom already come. 

The Master's Words are Actively Constructive. His 
co-ordinate words and deeds are organic. With emphasis 
unmistakable, He declares the spiritual nature of His King- 
dom. By quieter, but no less certain deeds He prepares 
for its organic perpetuation among men. In this period, 
more plainly than elsewhere, we see the progressive charac- 
ter of His revelation. He does not teach even His own 
disciples the divine nature of His Messianic office ; He 
allows the truth to come to them gradually, through asso- 
ciation with Him in labor and instruction. To have pro- 
claimed a divine Messiahship before He had lived it^ would 
have been fatal to all His plans. 

The Period as a Whole includes four stages of educational 
and Messianic activity, (a) The first is preparatory. Our 
Lord officially calls His disciples, and trains them by a mis- 
sionary tour throughout Galilee, (b) Then from this body 
of instructed disciples. He selects and appoints a smaller body 
called Apostles. In the Sermon of the Mount He instructs 
them in the moral and spiritual principles of the Kingdom, 
(c) During a second Missionary tour, the Twelve are trained 
in the field for their work as officers of the Kingdom. 



68 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

(d) After a third tour with their Divine Teacher, the Apostles 
are sent out alone with authority and power.* 

The Methods of The Master are adapted to the new 
conditions under which He works. Therefore they differ 
from those of the preceding period. Then, His words were 
preparing men to see the difference between physical 
and spiritual truths. Now He is preparing them to under- 
stand the spiritual truth, and to enter into the joy of its 
freedom. So far as His followers are able to bear it. His 
constructive word is followed by His constructive deed. 

The Master would have His listeners remember His words. 
Therefore, He puts His teaching into short, pithy sayings. 
In form they resemble the ' ' Wisdom ' ' literature of the Old 
Testament with which His hearers are already familiar. He 
calls them ' ' These sayings of Mine. ' ' He begins with what 
we call " The Beatitudes", and His hearers find them easy 
to remember. 

Because some of His hearers do not want to know the 
truth, and seek to pervert it, He began to speak in parables; 
a method whose beautiful simplicity fixes the story even in the 
mind of a child, and its truth in the heart of a man. But 
the parables were stumbling-blocks to those who followed 
the Pharisees' Jesuitical evasions of the truth. 

The Subject of the Master *s Teaching often seems to 
grow out of the passing conditions under which He speaks. 
In reality His words are interpretations of such conditions 
in their relation to the Kingdom of God. The principal 
topics of His teaching during this period are (a) The Good 
News of the Kingdom, (b) The Spiritual Freedom of the 
Kingdom, (c) The Spiritual Foundations of the Kingdom. 

* For Scripture authority for these statements, see " How to Study the 
Life of Christ," Chapters VII and VIII. 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 69 

(d) The Spiritual Mission of the Kingdom, (e) The Spiritual 
Authority of the Kingdom, and (f) the Heavenly Bread of 
the Kingdom. 

The Good News of the Kingdom. The note of the Xew 
Gospel which surprised the Galileans, vras its positiveness. 
The Scribes were constantly quoting the sayings of earKer 
teachers. Often their opinions clashed and the hsteners 
were left in doubt. Our Lord neither quoted, nor argued. 
He uttered His own unsupported word as God's truth. Do 
you wonder that His listeners exclaimed — ''He teaches as 
one having authority and not as the Scribes ! " Its second 
surprising quality was its power. The people ' •' were all 
amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, 
savino', 'What thina^ is this ? l^hat new doctrine is this ? 
for with authority commandeth He even the unclean spirits, 
and they do obey Him." (Mark 1 : 27.) 

' ' The time is f ulhlled, and the Kingdom of God is at 
hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel.'' (Mark 1:15.) 
The Baptist's work is done, and the fearless preacher im- 
prisoned. Jesus is doing Messianic Work. ' ' The Kingdom 
of God" on His lips has a new and larger meaning. 
The Baptist's was an Old Testament message; Christ's is a 
Xew. The words of John were almost a threat. The 
words of Christ (interpreted by His deeds) are a loving en- 
treaty. John's word cries, '-Escape from death." The 
words of Christ call for a new heart, and a new life. Do 
you wonder that the strangeness of the Master's words and 
deeds astonished and aroused all Galilee? 

The Spiritual Freedom of the Kingdom. The Son of 
Man was thrust out of ISTazareth for teaching the universality 
of the Kingdom. There were those in Capernaum who 
would crladlv have thrust Him out of that city for teachino- 



70 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OP CHRIST. 

the spiritual freedom of the Kingdom. To the paralytic He 
said, '' Son, thy sins are forgiven thee." '* Blasphemy ! " 
cries Scribe and Pharisee. To the cleansed leper He said, 
' * Offer for thy cleansing the things which Moses com- 
manded. ' ' Sullen silence from the Pharisees. Bitterly de- 
nounced for eating with sinners, He answered, ''They that 
are whole need not a physician ; but they that are sick. ' ' 
Condemned for not keeping Jewish fasts. He replies, ' ' Can the 
children of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bride- 
groom is with them ? But the days will come when the 
bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they 
fast." (Matt. 9: 15.) 

His hungering disciples pluck and eat the wayside grain 
on the Sabbath. The Pharisees condemn them as lawbreak- 
ers. Then their Master replies, ' ' The Sabbath was made 
for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son 
of man is Lord also of the Sabbath," (Mark 2: 27, 28) 
In the synagogue He asks, '' Is it lawful to do good on the 
Sabbath day, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But 
they held their peace. ' ' (Mark 3 : 4) Then to one with a 
withered hand He said, ''Stretch forth thy hand." The 
Pharisees secretly replied, " How can we destroy Him? " 

These incidents are many. The moral question involved 
is only one, and the Master's answer is one. He has 
already taught us that there are great commandments and 
lesser ones; and that moral obligations are greater than 
ceremonial obligations. Christ came to fulfil all law, its 
spirit always ; its letter when such fulfilment did not con- 
flict with moral law. We see this plainly when He says to 
the leper — " Go, show thyself to the priests." 

But the Pharisees placed the ceremonial law above the 
moral. They taught their followers to break moral law if 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 71 

it conflicted with ceremonial observance. It was this per- 
verse and immoral teaching which the Master denounced ; 
for it contradicted the Word of His Father, the teaching of 
the prophets, the spiritual liberty of the Kingdom of God. 

If the Messiah were not at liberty to help the weak soul, 
to feed the hungry soul, to heal the sick soul, or to save the 
sinner because it interrupted a ceremonial observance, then 
what had become of the foundation of all religion, man's 
duty to God, and man's duty to His neighbor? 

Again and again the Master sums up this whole matter 
in the pithy words, ** I will have mercy and not sacrifice." 
So had taught God's prophets, so teaches God's Son. First, 
love to God, and mercy to man ; afterwards, ceremonial 
observance. The disciples of the Baptist were keeping 
Jewish fast days. Our Lord rebukes them, not for so doing, 
but for their narrowness in joining the Pharisees in calling 
His own disciples lawless because they did not the same. 
He claims for His own the spiritual liberty of the New King- 
dom. Yet, with prophetic vision. He sees the day coming 
when His own will be left alone, and adds, ' ' then shall 
they fast." — Fast, not from restraint, but from love. 

The Spiritual Nature of the Kingdom is emphasized in 
this and in every period of our Lord's ministry. He who 
would enter the Kingdom must be born of the Spirit. She 
who would never thirst must drink of living water. They 
who would never hunger must eat of a meat which even 
His disciples cannot purchase. All who would worship God 
must do it in truth and spirituality. The essential nature 
of the Kingdom is unmistakable. Christ came to found a 
kingdom for man's salvation. The essential nature of man 
is spiritual, the nature of the kingdom must be the same. 

God, however, did not create man an invisible spirit. He 



72 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

gave man an outward and visible body, and put him upon 
an outward and visible earth. Therefore, when the Son 
builds upon earth a Kingdom from God for man's salvation, 
we know that it will be perfectly adapted to the nature of 
man for whom it was created. It will fit, and appeal to, 
nourish, strengthen, and develop every part of man's nature. 
It will be a Kingdom that ministers to man's body as well 
as man's spirit. Could a Kingdom that was wholly in- 
ternal and invisible do this? 

The circumstances under which the Son of Man taught, 
conditioned His words. His hearers expected a new king- 
dom, were ready on the slightest encouragement to rise and 
proclaim Him their king, but the kingdom they expected 
was political. The king they wanted was a revolutionist. 
It was plainly impossible at this stage for the Son of Man 
to teach of the earthly and human side of His Kingdom 
without being misunderstood, without ruining His life-work. 
So He taught of the Kingdom's spiritual relation to God 
and man. But of its necessary relation to the physical con- 
ditions under which every human spirit lives, He did 
not teach. He did more than teach. He acted. 

The Outward Organization of the Kingdom. The King- 
dom was not an accident, not a makeshift, not an after- 
thought. The Son came from the Father to found the 
Kingdom of His Father, to restore men to His Father. Kot 
simply the men of His own land and generation, but the 
men of all lands and all generations. He was Himself to 
die after three years of ministry. He knew this. Yet His 
mission was to restore souls to God, unto the world's end. 
Therefore He must organize a Kingdom to continue His 
work after He had left the earth. From the first day of 
His ministry He began to lay the foundation of His King- 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 73 

dom. His every word and act in the first period of His 
ministry was a preparation for organization. 

When He removed to Capernaum His plans were revealed 
by His deeds. He finds by the Galilean lake those who had 
followed Him on the banks of the Jordan. He calls them 
again, not merely to follow but to become trained fishers of 
men, missionaries of the Kingdom. As He called the fish- 
ermen from their nets, so He called Matthew from his toll 
booth. Now the hour has come for another step. Gather- 
ing all His disciples together, He chooses twelve whom He 
appoints Apostles. 

The choice of the Twelve marks the beginning of a new 
and larger constructive activity. The field is white for the 
harvest. From every side, and at all hours, a multitude of 
heart-hungry, soul-hungry, and bodily-diseased, are press- 
ing upon the Christ to be made whole. But the bitter en- 
mity of Jewish leaders from Jerusalem is making His work 
more and more dilficult. It becomes necessary, to meet the 
needs of the hour, that the King should have a staff of 
helpers. It is necessary, to meet the needs of the future, 
that the Kingdom should not be left without leaders when 
its Head is taken from them ; and for both reasons it is 
doubly necessary that those who are to be officers and teach- 
ers in the Kingdom, should be fully trained and prepared for 
their new duties. 

In this new constructive activity, we see the gradual dis- 
closure of the earthly plans, and eternal purposes of the Son 
of Man. But the vision of the Apostles is far below the 
vision of the Christ. They are expecting the sort of king- 
dom that their fathers expected. The Messiah has given 
His Kingdom its first outward and visible form. The dis- 
ciples are filled with eager and earthly expectations. 



74 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

What is the Messiah's next step? To explain this outward 
and visible form ? JSTo — , to emphasize anew the Kingdom's 
unworldly and fundamentally spiritual nature. ' ' Blessed are 
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; " 
and this, and every beatitude which follows it, contradicted 
the political hopes and earthly ambitions of the new 
officers of the long expected Kingdom. 

The Spiritual Life of the Kingdom is set forth in the Ser- 
mon on the Mount. It is the ordination sermon of the 
Apostles, the practical working constitution of the King- 
dom ; the practical principles by which every member of it 
must shape his conduct, and direct his life. The Master's 
words mirror the Master's Kingdom. The first and last of 
the Beatitudes present the supreme reward of earthly faith- 
fulness. The promises between point to different aspects of 
that blessedness. Plainly the ideal * ' child of God ' ' pre- 
sented by the Beatitudes, contradicts the standards of 
Christ's day, and of our own. A character that has for its 
root, poverty of spirit, and for its fruitage, persecution for 
righteousness' sake, is as unwelcome now as then. And yet 
the Beatitudes are simply the character and conduct of Jesus 
of E"azareth, translated into human words for the instruction 
of the members of His Kingdom. 

To all who are members of His Kingdom He says : Ye 
are spiritual salt, keep ye the world from spoiling. Ye are 
spiritual light, reflect ye the glory of God. The ancient 
Law must not be broken nor the Prophets denied ; ye are to 
fill them with My truth. Ye are to teach others to fulfil 
them — not according to the standards of the Scribes. * ^ For 
I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed 
the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in 
no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. 5 : 20.) 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 75 

My standard is not the outward deed but the inward motive. 
Hate is a desire to kill. Lust is adultery in the heart. To 
be enstranged from thy brother is to make worthless thy 
gift at God's altar. Doth thy right eye, or thy right hand 
make thee to sin — destroy it, lest it destroy thee. Hate not. 
Love thine enemies, and pray for them. Are not ye the 
Children of your Father in Heaven? 

As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so 
to them. Be righteous before God, not before men. Thy 
Father seeth thy secret alms, thy prayers and fastings. He 
shall reward thee. Deposit thy wealth and thy heart with 
thy Father in Heaven. No man can serve both God and 
Mammon. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. Be not 
anxious for your life, its food, nor its clothing ; is not God 
the bird's Husbandman, and the Creator of the lilies' glory. 
Will He not much more care for His own? Shun hypoc- 
risy. Search not for motes in the eye of thy brother, but 
for beams in thine own. 

In the Lord's Prayer the Master holds before His pupils 
the portrait of that true disciple which they must pray to 
become. He is one who loves, and humbly seeks His 
Heavenly Father's presence; who on earth, by speech and 
conduct makes holy His Father's name ; who, by loyal 
word and generous deed, lives to hasten the coming of the 
Kingdom ; who daily strives to fulfil his Father's will on 
earth, as the angels fulfil it in Heaven ; who daily seeks 
from God bread to nourish both his body and spirit ; who 
forgives every son of His Father as sincerely as he prays to 
be forgiven ; who shunning every temptation both of soul 
and body, daily keeps himself from evil by fleeing to the 
footstool of His Father in Heaven. 

Ask, and a blessing shall be given unto you. Seek and 



76 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

ye shall find the gift from above. The earthly father giveth 
not his hungering child a stone for a loaf ; liow much more 
shall your Father above give you, not the stone of your 
self-seeking prayer, but the nourishing loaf of His love. Seek 
ye not the easy but the diflBcult way, for its end is life. 
Beware of false prophets. Do corrupt teachers bring forth 
purity ? Therefore, by their fruits ye shall know their 
worth. ]^ot he that crieth '^Lord, Lord ! " entereth into 
heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father. He that 
doeth My words foundeth his house on the rock of truth ; 
whoso doeth them not buildeth his house on shifting sand 
and destroying flood. 

When Jesus had finished the multitudes were astonished. 
For the Master presented these basic principles of His king- 
dom, principles which contradicted His own age, and were to 
revolutionize all future ages, without an argument or the 
citation of a single earthly authority. Without apology, or 
a moment's hesitation, He takes the position of an infallible 
Teacher of moral and spiritual conduct ; not for Galileans 
alone, but for all mankind. He calmly claims that His words 
must be obeyed because they are His. And these new and 
revolutionary principles. He utters with the absolute author- 
ity and certainty of One who speaks elementary and self- 
evident truths. 

The Human Mission of the Kingdom was plainly an- 
nounced in Christ's words at Nazareth. <' The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach 
the gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recover- 
ing of sight to the blind." (Luke 4: 18.) Now, having 
chosen the Twelve, and instructed them in the first prin- 
ciples of His Kingdom, He begins His second missionary 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 77 

tour, and the Apostles' f/rst training school. Where does 
He take them ? Il^ot to the wilderness of the Baptist, nor 
the cloisters of the Eabbis. He takes them to the busy 
market-place filled with its merchants, waiting laborers, and 
playing children ; to the city gate with its repulsive lepers 
and blind beggars, its lame, and lazy, and sinful ; to the 
bedside of the dying and the grave of the dead ; to the school 
of submerged souls, the real world where Apostolic work 
and teaching still needs to be done. 

The world seeks, and crowds the schools of brilliant 
theorists. The Apostles were trained for the work of the 
Kingdom by actual labor and experience in the missionary 
field. Here is a partial list of their Master's lessons, lessons 
addressed to eye and ear, and even more to mind and heart. 
Christ restores to health the servant of a Roman captain. 
He restores to life the son of a widow, and restores to faith 
His imprisoned Forerunner. He restores the soul of a sinful 
woman. He accepts the offerings of those He has restored 
and blessed. He teaches that His faithful followers are 
nearer of kin than those of His flesh. He restores calmness 
to the sea, and reason to demented demoniacs. He restores 
life to a Ruler's beloved daughter, sight to blind men, 
speech to the dumb, and health to the sick. In addition to 
His special instructions at these many restorations. He, for 
the first time, teaches by public parables (and private inter- 
pretations) the nature and mission of His Kingdom. (Luke 
T: lto8: 56.) 

Plainly the Kingdom is to restore what man has lost, or 
sin has destroyed. The Messianic King fulfils His mission by 
restoring men's bodies to their normal relation to earth, and 
men's souls to their normal relation to God. Can you con- 
ceive of a more blessed mission ? Yet in His journey He 



78 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

enters Kazareth and finds Himself unwelcome, and helpless 
to save. Do you wonder that He marvelled at their un- 
belief? 

The Authority of the Kingdom always made itself felt in 
His teaching. Astonished at the Master's doctrines, the 
people are even more astonished at the positiveness of the 
Speaker. "Whence was this authority? It is the authority 
of a King in His own Kingdom. In this period occur 
some of the most striking examples of our Lord's superhuman 
knowledge of the natural and spiritual forces of the world, 
and of His authority over them. His healing of the paraly- 
tic's soul first, and later healing his body to prove to blas- 
pheming Pharisees that the man's sins were already 
pardoned ; His deliberately healing a withered hand in the 
synagogue on the Sabbath day, and His numerous healings 
and restorations in the presence of His Apostles, are examples 
of a marvelous superhuman power and authority, object 
lessons for the people, and for the training His Apostles. 

The Living Bread of the Kingdom. Probably no teach- 
ing of Our Lord made a deeper impression than His feeding 
the 5,000. It is the one miracle recorded by all four evangel- 
ists. He did not seek the occasion ; it was thrust upon Him 
by the thronging multitudes. Yet *^ He knew "what He 
would do. ' ' He foresaw its momentous results, the culmi- 
nation of His popularity, the excitement of thousands whose 
only Messianic desire was for a king to restore the political 
glory of Israel. They actuall^^ planned to force Him to be- 
come their leader in a political conspiracy ! This was the 
Galilean multitude's sordid return for over a year of the 
Master's spiritual instruction, and ceaseless ministry of 
mercy. 

It was to representatives of this multitude that He said, 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATIGN. 79 

<* Yerily, verily. I say uuto you, ye seek me because ye ate 
of the loaves and were filled. Work not for the meat that 
perisheth. " " Yerily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave 
you not that bread from heaven ; but my Father giveth 
you the true bread from heaven. " "I am the Living Bread 
which came down from heaven ; if any man eat of this bread, 
he shall live forever ; and the bread that I will give is my 
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John. 
6: 32, 51) 

Does it seem strange to you that when the people stumbled 
at His words, Christ should have added " Yerily, verily, I 
say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, 
and drink His blood, ye have no life in you ' ' ? The Master 
knew that they did not desire a spiritual kingdom, or its 
spiritual food, so, instead of making His words earthly and 
easy, He purposely took the opposite course. He sought 
to convince them that He was not the kind of a king they 
wanted. His words had the desired effect. They realized 
His unworldly character and purpose. They had nothing 
more to do with Him. So completely did they turn their 
backs upon Him that the rejected King turned to His own 
little flock saying, "Will ye also go away? " 

To us the words of Christ should convey His real message. 
In the first period He taught us that entrance to the King- 
dom is by spiritual birth, and that the worshippers sought 
by His Father are spiritual ones. The present period is 
crowded with like truths. The Kingdom has indeed re- 
ceived the beginning of an outward and visible form in order 
to minister to souls then on the earth, yet it is the King- 
dom's spiritual freedom, spiritual foundation, spiritual life, 
spiritual riches, spiritual motives, spiritual authority, 
spiritual brotherhood and restoration that the Master has 



80 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

been constantly emphasizing. It is simply the natural 
climax of tliis teaching for Him to declare that the 
spiritual life can be sustained only by spiritual bread, and 
that this Bread is Himself. 

' * I am the Bread of Life ; he that cometh to Me shall 
never hunger ; and he that believeth on Me shall never 
thirst. " ^ ' As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live 
by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by 
Me. " ' ^ It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth 
nothing ; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit 
and they are life. ' ' (John. 6 : 63.) 

Man must be a partaker of Christ's Own Life, or he can- 
not live the spiritual life of the Kingdom. The hour had 
not come for the Son of Man to reveal the fulness of sacra- 
mental truth. That hour came not until the night on which 
He was betrayed. Yet His own disciples knew that His 
mystical words concerned the inward and spiritual life of 
His Kingdom, and of a means whereby that life was to 
be sustained. Christ's words ' ' are spirit and are life ' ' ; were 
so when spoken, are so to-day. Their fundamental im- 
portance depends not upon the sacrament which to-day 
expresses them, but upon Him who uttered them. The 
answer of the Apostles emphasized this truth. ''Lord, 
Thou hast the words of eternal life. ' ' 

It was the Messiah's insistence upon the universality of 
His Kingdom which caused His rejection at Nazareth. It is 
a like insistence upon its spirituality which causes His re- 
jection at Capernaum, and ends this period of His ministry, 
and its instruction. 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

In what part of the Master's ministry are there no parables ? Where do 
you find them ? Why not earlier ? Did they just happen ? Or were they 



TEACHING IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 81 

planned for ? Recalling past chapters will aid you to answer. Why did the 
Master use parables ? Read St. Matt. 13:1-9. Read again and again until 
you see the picture with shut eyes. Then study it and interpret it, mak- 
ing notes of the result. Then compare your notes with the Master's, St. 
Matt. 13: 10-23. What does He make the essential truth of the parable ? 

In the same way study St. Matt. 13 : 24-30. Use its central truth as the 
key, and interpret the parable, making notes of result. Compare your 
notes with St. Matt. 13 : 34-43. Why are the parables so very variously 
interpreted ? Turn back and re-read pages 8 and 15. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

PARABLES m THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 

If you are familiar with the Gospels, you cannot think of 
the Master's teaching without thinking of His parables. If 
you read a modern parabolic attempt your thought flies 
back to the perfect parables spoken beside the Galilean Lake. 
But if to-day this method attracts both child and man, much 
more did it captivate and throw its spell over Oriental peo- 
ples ; for with them imagination is more nimble-footed than 
reason, and prepares the way for its logical conclusions. In 
His parables the Master Teacher gives a perfect example of 
what He taught His disciples to do (Matt. 13 : 52). He brings 
forth out of the treasure house of His wisdom, '' things both 
new and old. ' ' He uses what is familiar and attractive to 
introduce truths that are strange, or unwelcome. He 
builds His parables upon the likeness of the old everyday 
truth to the new truth of the Kingdom. And what is all 
our modern talk about the basic principles of pedagogy but 
a re-statement of the matchless educational methods of the 
Master. 

The Place of the Parable in Christ's Ministry is often 
misunderstood. There is a popular idea that Christ used 
this method throughout His entire ministry. That when 
He taught, and what He taught was decided by some pass- 
ing occurrence, or chance questioner. This is a grave mis- 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 83 

take. JSTeither the Master's life nor ministry was without a 
plan. His teaching was certainly a part of that plan. 
Nothing was spoken before the time, nothing was spoken 
except as His disciples, or wayside hearers were able to bear 
it. During two of the great periods of His ministry there 
is no recorded parable, and no reference to any unrecorded 
ones ; although these same periods contain references to un- 
recorded miracles. In every case the Master uses His par- 
able to prepare for or confirm direct teaching. The occa- 
sion of His parables is decided by the stage of His teaching. 
The seemingly chance question is usually prompted by some 
word of the Master. 

The time for the parable was decided by the development 
of the Master's ministry. During the Preparatory Period 
(Chap, yi.) both John the Baptist and the Christ were 
preaching and baptizing for a Kingdom which was ' ' at 
hand. ' ' The Kingdom then existed only in the will, and 
purpose of the King. There could be no call to use parables 
to explain the nature of something that had not yet taken 
form. The direct teaching of the first period laid the 
foundation for the Kingdom's organization. The parables 
followed to explain its nature and purpose. As the parables 
of the Period of Organization could not have been uttered 
in the first period, so the parables of the third period could 
not have been spoken in any of the other three periods with- 
out contradicting the progressive method of Christ's rev- 
elation of His Kingdom. 

The Historical Development of Parabolic Teaching is 
plainly conditioned by the progressive nature of Christ's 
plan. The three basic truths emphasized by the Son of Man 
during the Preparatory Period are (a) that His Kingdom is 
spiritual in its nature (b) social in its activity, and (c) univer- 



84 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

sal in its purpose. The five parables in the Period of Organi- 
zation emphasize the first of these truths, the spiritual 
nature, and priceless value of the Kingdom. The eighteen 
parables in the Period of Self-revelation emphasize (a) 
Man's social duties as neighbor and brother in the Kingdom, 
and (b) the consequences of ignoring such duties. 

The Purpose of the Parable in Christ's teaching is as 
definite as its place. The first parables surprised the dis- 
ciples. They immediately ask, '' Why speakest thou unto 
them in parables?" Recall the conditions. The Master 
had preached the Kingdom in Judea. The Jews were His 
Father's people, their Temple His Father's Church; yet His 
words aroused only their enmity. He removes to Capernaum. 
His first Missionary tour astonishes all Galilee. His activity 
is felt even in distant Jerusalem. Its Rulers send spies to 
dog His steps. From this hour until His death Christ faces 
two audiences, the *' common people " hearing Him gladly, 
the Jewish spies listening to catch, contradict, and condemn. 
Moreover the time has come to teach concerning the King- 
dom. It is a most dangerous subject. 

A * ^ new kingdom, ' ' to the impulsive Galileans, means 
revolt against Rome. A *'new kingdom," to the Scribe 
and Pharisee, means revolt against the Hebrew Hierarchy. 
Christ cannot openly teach the " Kingdom " without being 
misunderstood. The parable, however, based on the com- 
mon things of daily life, catches the ear, and gradually in- 
structs the heart of the people. The very simplicity of its 
words hides from perverted minds the spiritual truths of the 
Kingdom which Christ desired to impart to honest hearted 
hearers. In this latter class belonged the Apostles. 

It is to be remembered that some of the parables were 
uttered in private for the disciples only, and that as a rule 



PARABLES, IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 85 

the public parables were fully explained to them in private. 
Frequently the disciples requested an explanation ; if they 
did not, then the Master questioned them. From the very 
first, the parable had a large place in the schooling of the 
disciples. In the final period of the Master's ministry 
(which is very largely devoted to the training of the Twelve) 
we find more parables than in all the other periods put 
together. 

The Interpretation of Parables is not difficult to honest 
and humble students. The first step is to discover the prin- 
ciples of their interpretation. Happily for us the Master 
explained His own parables. Let us study His words. The 
Master's basic principle is already familiar to us. All in- 
spired statements rmist he interjpreted historically. The 
meaning of doubtfid words is determined hy the conditions 
under which they were uttered. This principle is too fre- 
quently ignored. We allow the beauty of the parable to 
mislead us. "We think we see its meaning and then uncon- 
sciously read into it what is uppermost in our thoughts, de- 
sires, or prejudices. The clergyman often begins with its 
theological meaning, the socialist with its social doctrine, 
and the untrained reads it for its personal application. This 
in each case is taking the last step first. 

The first question should be (a) what is the literal mean- 
ing of the parable ? i. e. the meaning of its words without any 
reference to their application. Then (b) what is its essen- 
tial truth ? i. e. the one central truth for which it was 
uttered, and without which it would be meaningless ? This 
last is an historical question. It sends us back to study the 
conditions under which it was uttered. This is the only 
method which leads to truth, ^ext, (c) What lesson had 
this parable for those who heard it spoken? (d) What lesson 



86 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

does it convey to us to-day ? The lesson for us may in some 
vv^ays differ from the one it taught the Hebrew multitude. 
It may be a larger truth and doctrine than even the disciples 
received ; but it ccjmnot contradict the essential truths which 
it conveyed to its first hearers. To reduce to one written 
sentence the essential truths of a parable will greatly help 
us to fix it in our minds. Finally, (e) The correctness of 
our conclusions should be tested by comparing them with 
the Master's direct and plain teaching on the same subjects. 
Above all, with the teaching by His own blameless life. 

Apply the above method to the Parable of the Sower. 
For historical conditions read the twelfth chapter of St. 
Matthew, a picture of the Divine Teacher sowing the living 
seed of the Kingdom. E^ote the effect of His words as they 
fall into differing ears and hearts. Note the result of the 
sowing as pictured in the parable. What decides the fruit- 
age? Not the quality of the seed (God's truth), not the 
method of the sower (the Son of Man), but the varying con- 
ditions of the heart soil upon which it falls. 

What were its lessons to those who heard? Study the 
Master's explanation to His disciples. Does their lesson 
differ from ours ? The essential truth is — Christ' s words can- 
not become spiritually fruitful unless the hearts into which 
they fall are * ^ honest and true. ' ' Compare this conclusion 
with the direct teaching of the Master on the same subject. 
Compare the hearers in St. John 7 : 5-7, 12, 25-26, 31-32, 
40-52, with the hearers in the parable. The three parables 
which follow that of The Sower are on closely related 
topics, and therefore throw light upon the one we are 
studying. 

The Parables in the Period of Organization are eight. 
They are the first spoken by the Master, and therefore are 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 87 

the ones relating to the basic subject of His teaching the 
Kingdom. The first five explain the Kingdom's nature, and 
the method of its growth. The Kingdom is presented as a 
living organism whose spiritual growth results from the 
planting of divine seed. The last three parables dwell upon 
the priceless value, and cost of obtaining the Kingdom. 
The unity of teaching in the first five parables, is seen in the 
following outline. 

The Nature of The Kingdom of God. 

A Spiritual Organism Growi7ig from Divine Seed. 

The Divine Seed in its Relation to : — 

Its Widely Varying Soils ; — " The Sower." 

The Providential Laws of its Growth ; — "Growing Seed." 

Its Inevitable Spiritual Enemy ; — " The Tares." 

The Wide Extent of its Growth ;—" The Mustard Seed." 

The Transforming Power of its Growth ; — " The Leaven." 

The picturing of a parable is an art to be cultivated by 
both reader and teacher. The imagery of a parable is 
Christ's appeal to man's imagination. We cannot grasp 
even its form until we can shut our eyes and see the Mas- 
ter's picture, bright, vivid, glowing. The scene of His 
first parable was the Sea of Galilee. ' ' The most sacred 
sheet of water which this earth contains. ' ' He begins by 
the seaside, the multitude increases. He steps into a boat, 
— try to see the Gospel picture. 

The boat a few rods from the shore, held by oar or 
anchor, swings to the rhythm of the waves ; the eager 
crowds standing upon the shelving sand, heads bent to 
catch the Speaker's strangely attractive words. The Master 
sitting in His floating pulpit; seeing His listeners, and 
doubtless seeing behind them the different soils of which He 
is speaking : the hard trodden path between the prepared 



88 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

ground, bare of fruit; the rocky hillside with its scant 
soil and withered growth, the clumps of thorn bushes chok- 
ing all life but their own; and, best of all, the broad, un- 
broken fields of goodly grain, the faithful sower's joy and 
reward. When we can shut our eyes and see this, then we 
are prepared to make others see it. 

The Imagery of the Parable has much to do with its in- 
terpretation. The first five parables are built upon the 
imagery of the husbandman. Their truth is based upon what 
man calls the laws of nature, i. e. , the unchanging certainty 
of God's loving purpose as revealed in the natural 
world. And because the truth, and the imagery by which it 
is taught are both from God's field, these five parables are 
more easy to interpret than all others. In the last three 
parables of this period (and the eighteen of the following 
period), the imagery is based upon the daily life of the East. 
Our ignorance of Oriental manners and customs often 
causes us to miss the real teaching of the Master. 

The Parable of the Growing Seed is given by St. Mark 
only (4 : 26). Here, again, we see the sower scattering good 
seed. Here, however, it falls into ' * good ground ' ' only, 
and all the returns are satisfactory. What law of growth 
not mentioned in " The Sower " is emphasized here? Brief 
as this parable is, it has received several names, each based 
upon what the interpreter considered its main point. Would 
you call it the ^'Growing Seed," the *<Seed Growing 
Secretly," the ''Blade, the Ear, the Full Corn," the 
" Fruit-Bearing Earth," or some other name? Where falls 
the Master's emphasis? Is not the earth's part in the 
seed's growth the one He emphasized? Does any other of 
the five agricultural parables call our attention to this point? 
Bead them and see. 



PARABLES EN' THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 89 

The parable presents the picture of a man who prepares 
his ground, so\ys good seed, and then lets it alone until har- 
vest. Why? Because as God's man, he believed the earth 
to be God's earth, and therefore fully empowered to fulfil 
God's providential laws of growth. He did his own work 
faithfully ; then patiently waited for God to do His work in 
His own appointed time. Eemember all the parables of this 
period were primarily spoken for the discijDles' instruction. 
They concern the first truths of the Kingdom. They were 
privately explained to the Twelve, and two of these divine 
interpretations are found in the Gospels. 

The Apostles greatly needed this parable. From early 
childhood they had expected the coming of a Jewish Mes- 
siah to found a Jewish political kingdom. And they never 
got away from these delusions until Pentecost, and one 
Apostle not even then. During the whole of their school- 
ing the Master's seed-sowing was hurt by their restless look- 
ing for an immediate harvest, the sudden restoration of 
Israel to political supremacy. When at the end of three 
years of personal training we find them asking ^'When" 
the new Kingdom would come, "what" would be their 
reward, and " where" would be their places of honor, we 
can well understand the state of their minds at this early 
stage of their training. 

The Parable of the Tares, (Matt. 13 : 24:) was spoken to 
correct another erroneous attitude of the disciples. This 
Period of Organization is the hour of the Messiah's greatest 
popularity. Capernaum, yea all Galilee is now aroused. 
The Apostles are exultant, " Lord, even the demons are 
subject unto us I For this hour — yes, but the chief of 
demons is yet to be reckoned with. Xow is the time 
for planting, the harvest is not yet. There is a growing 



90 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

power in evil seeds as well as in good. There are months 
before the harvest. Yes, and yb7"i^<§ every month is a thou- 
sand years. We have the Master's own interpretation of 
this parable. Study it carefully. (Matt. 13 : 36.) 

The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matt. 13 : 31. Mark 
4 : 30. Luke 13:18) was spoken to encourage the disciples 
and all who would follow in their steps. The enemy might, 
indeed, use the forces of the earth and man to retard the 
development of good seed. Yet he cannot stop the ultimate 
growth of the Kingdom. The minute mustard seed is des- 
tined to fill the earth and overshadow all its kingdoms. 
This is the dominant, and the prophetic truth of the para- 
ble. Its words, and the details of its imagery must be 
interpreted to harmonize with the truth which the Master 
has made emphatic. 

The Parable of the Leaven. (Matt. 13: 33,) like that 
of the Mustard Seed, presents only one great truth, the 
growth of the Kingdom. The Mustard tree, however, 
taught the extensiveness of the Kingdom. This, its inten- 
siveness. The growth of the Mustard was open and visible, 
that of the Leaven is hidden and secret. The growth of 
the Mustard plant is to fill the world, that of the Leaven 
is to permeate, and eventually transform the world. The 
Leaven presents the invisible nature of the Kingdom as it 
was working in men's heart when the parable was spoken. 
The Mustard, the visible nature of the Kingdom as we see 
it existing in the Acts of the Apostles. This is the last of 
the five parables devoted to teaching the essential nature 
of the Kingdom. Can you condense their instruction into 
a single sentence? Try it. Compare the result with the 
third line on page 87. 

The Priceless Value of the Kingdom is the subject of the 



PARABLES m THE PERIOD OP ORGANIZATION. 91 

next three parables. We call them The Treasure, The 
Pearl, and the J^et. They are the only ones in which the 
Master taught the supreme worth of the Kingdom. The 
multitude had no place in this instruction. It was a 
part of the private schooling of the Twelve. JSTote also 
that in this group Christ makes a complete change in the 
character of His imagery. He no longer finds it in the un- 
changing laws of nature but in the manners and customs of 
His own age. In this fertile field He continues to teach 
until His teaching is done. The unity of the three parables 
is seen in this outline : 

The Kingdom of God. 

^ The Supreme Purpose and Attainment of Life. 

To secure : 

A Treasure, Worth all that a man possesses. " The Treasure." 
A Pearl, Worth a man's Life-long search. " The Pearl." 
A Goodness, accepted and honored by God. " The Net." 

The Hid Treasure (Matt. 13 : 44) presents the Kingdom 
in a new aspect. It is no longer a seed, a growth, or a 
fruitage, but a priceless possession which must be personally 
acquired. The imagery is built upon a common occurrence 
in Oriental lands, the finding of treasure- trove. The parable 
is a perfect picture of the conditions and customs amid which 
Christ's hearers were living. It at once caught and held 
their attention. The hero of the story discovers the treasure 
accidentally. He was not looking for it, but he instantly 
recognizes its great value. He turns all he possesses into 
money and buys the field to obtain the treasure. To part 
with his every earthly possession is a great sacrifice, but a 
glad one. He sells all minor treasures that he may obtain 
the supreme one, the Kingdom of God. Do you recall any 



92 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

man who found this treasure and later sold it for a contemp- 
tible sum? 

The Pearl of Great Price (Matt. 13 : 45) teaches the same 
truth in a different way. In the former parable it is the 
treasure that finds the man. Here it is the man who finds 
the pearl. It was not a chance finding. The merchant was 
seeking for the hest jpearls. He instantly recognizes the 
value of the one offered him. He sells all his other pearls, 
yea, everything he owns and buys it. The pearl is to him 
worth all his life-long search ; more than all his other riches. 
He has obtained the most precious of all pearls, the King- 
dom of God is his. He is more than satisfied. The Para- 
ble brings before our mind the picture of another earnest 
seeker for '^goodly" pearls. He was offered this very 
pearl, the one Christ had in mind when He uttered the 
parable. But the seeker was unwilling to pay the price ! 
Did all his inferior pearls satisfy him? (Mark 10 : 17-22.) 

The Drag-Net (Matt. 13 : 47) in its essential truth re- 
sembles the parable of the Tares. But it differs from the 
Tares both in its imagery, and in its point of view. It is 
its view-point which relates it to the Treasure, and the 
Pearl, makes it a fitting climax to the three parables on 
«' The Supreme Good." 

The Galilean fishermen sometimes use a line, sometimes 
a hand net, and sometimes the great drag-net, which, 
hauled through the deep water, encloses all fish within its 
reach, large and small, good and bad. Not until the great 
net has been dragged to the shore can the fishermen pick 
out the good, and throw the bad away. But what is '^ the 
good " ? It is not an outward treasure which all men see 
and value. It is not a perfect pearl which appeals only to 
the experienced. It is an inward quality. It is a concealed 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION. 93 

life and goodness ; an inward character which only God and 
His angels are able to see, and separate from the bad. The 
supreme purpose and attainment of life, is indeed seen in the 
priceless treasure, and in the priceless pearl, but most clearly 
in that priceless character which the angels shall separate 
from all evil and give a place in the eternal Kingdom. 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

Before reading the next chapter try to answer (from earl^r studies) the 
following questions. Where was the Master's home during the Period of 
Preparation ? Where during the Period of Organization ? Where during 
the next Period ? What was the relation of Christ's Kingdom to the 
Hebrew Church ? Did our Lord ever denounce men ? If so, what class, 
or classes ? Why ? What method of worship is acceptable to God ? 
Which part of the Master's ministry is most largely given to the schooling 
of the Twelve ? Why did they need special training ? Study Mark 
9:33-34, and Matt. 18:2-6. Did Christ call, or reject men? What does 
He do to-day? (Luke 9 -50 and 11: 23). Did Jesus claim to be divine? 
Study carefully the eighth chapter of St. John, also Matt. 26 : 63 to 66. 
For what crime was Christ crucified ? (John 19 : 6-8). 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 

This Period extends from the Son of Man's rejection at 
Capernaum to His rejection at Jerusalem. The time covered 
is about thirteen months. 

The conditions under which Christ taught are not those 
of earlier periods. During the larger portion of this period 
the Master was a homeless wanderer, seeking to avoid Jew- 
ish spies and contradictors, that He might finish His work 
of training the Twelve before He was taken from them. 
** The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but 
the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. ' ' He could 
not have uttered these words at any other stage of His teach- 
ing. They are profoundly true of this one. It is the period 
of Christ's humiliation. 

'< This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
So spoke the Father amid the splendors of the Mount of 
Transfiguration. That was the period of Christ's glory. 
The present contrast is striking, it is intense — to us. To 
the Son of Man? We must remember that the standards of 
heaven are not those of earth. Christ's humiliation is His 
glory. His glory is His humiliation. 

The Relation of the New Kingdom to the Old Church is 
gradually revealed. The Master passed it by in the Period 
of Preparation. Aside from His plain words on the Sabbath 

94 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 95 

it was hardly touched during the Period of Organization. 
The hour had now come for its consideration. The Jews 
were the hereditary children of Abraham. But they will 
not receive the Messiah of Abraham. The time has come to 
repudiate their exclusive claims, to proclaim publicly by 
word and deed the tmiversality , the world-wide inclusiveness 
of the New Kingdom. 

The nature of the New Kingdom was central in the Mes- 
siah's thought. Yet no other was so difficult to lodge in the 
minds of His hearers. Generation after generation of false 
teachers had so preoccupied the minds of the people that 
there was no room for the truth. In spite of the Master's 
wonderful words, and vivid parabolic pictures, their vision 
of the Kingdom was one built on earthly righteousness, for 
earthly ends, and earthly glory. The disciples are still 
thinking the thoughts of the people, their religious ideas are 
those of their childhood. 

From Jerusalem came the Pharisees, saying, ' ' Why do thy 
disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash 
not their hands when they eat bread? " Christ answers, 
' ' Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by 
your traditions? Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy 
of you, saying. This people draweth nigh unto me with their 
mouth, and honoureth me with their lips ; but their heart 
is far from me. . . . Not that which goeth into the mouth 
defileth a man ; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this 
defileth a man. ' ' (Matt. 15:2.) 

These words offended the Pharisees, and astonished the 
disciples. Their meaning is plain to us. Yet St. Peter said 
privately, *' Declare unto us the parable." The Master is 
surprised, but He patiently teaches them how impossible it 
is for a man's food to pollute his heart. Only that which 



96 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

is morally unclean can defile the soul. '' For from within, 
out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, 
fornications, murders. Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, 
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, fool- 
ishness : All these evil things come from within, and defile 
a man." (Mark 7 : 21-23.) 

It is an impressive testimony to the tenacity of childhood's 
earliest lessons that the Apostle who asked for this explana- 
tion was the one who eight years later had to receive a spe- 
cial vision from heaven to interpret to him the real meaning 
of the explanation which he had received. 

The sternness of Christ's words in repelling the Pharisees 
arises from the fact that He is speaking to the men who 
were responsible for the moral and religious degradation of 
the Jewish Church. He denounced them, not for their mul- 
titudinous additions to the original Law, not because their 
tyranny rested only on their own vaiji traditions, but be- 
cause their traditions substituted ceremonial cleanness for 
personal purity, contradicted the holy purpose of the Law, 
and made empty and worthless God's demand for justice, 
mercy, and righteousness. 

The teaching of the ancient prophets demanded a religion 
not of hand and lip, but of the heart and life. Certainly 
the New Kingdom could demand no less. It is not the out- 
ward ceremonial that sanctifies the heart, but the pure heart 
that sanctifies the outward ceremoniaL It is the spiritual 
quality of worship, which makes it acceptable to God, and 
a blessing to the worshipper. Christ does not concern 
Himself with the presence, or the absence of outward forms, 
but with their spiritual sincerity and truth. 

There never has existed a religion that did not express 
itself outwardly. The sad side of this truth, the one that 



THE PERIOD OF SELF REVELATION. 97 

grieved the heart of the Master, is that in every age, the 
tendency of man has been to put the outward expression 
above the inward spirit ; to substitute human traditions for 
divine ordinances. But to the honest student of His words 
nothing is more plain than the wise carefulness with which 
the Divine Teacher discriminates between the use and abuse 
of rehgious forms. 

Realize the historical conditions ; for by them we must 
interpret Christs words. The Old Church was God's Church. 
Into it Jesus was admitted in His infancy. In it He and 
His disciples were worshippers. Sacrifices and ceremonials, 
feasts and fasts, came from God. Christ honored them as 
such. But the false teachers of God's ancient Church were 
making it the very opposite of what God intended. Not a 
divine help, but a human hindrance to righteousness. Not 
a center of truth, but of hypocrisy ; not a House of Prayer, 
but a den of thieves. The attitude of the Son is plain. He 
reverently honors the Church of His Father ; He sternly 
denounces those who are degrading its teaching and pollut- 
ing its worship. 

Christ's position is made clear even in His severest denun- 
ciations. ^ * The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat : 
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe 
and do ; but do not ye after their works. (Matt. 23 : 2, 3.) 
*' For all their works they do to be seen of men," ^^ Woe 
unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! For ye pay 
tithes of mint, and anise and cummin, and have omitted the 
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith : 
these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 
undone." (Matt. 23: 23.) 

Could the charity of justice, amid stern denunciation, be 
more beautifully manifested? Man may sneer at his neigh- 



98 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

bor's ** contemptible littleness" or even '* hypocrisy " in 
tithing his peppermint and anise seed, yet with perfect and 
divine appreciation, the Master commends devout faithful- 
ness even in the smallest of religious expressions. 

The same divine discrimination is made manifest in His 
different answers to like questions. To Him came the Phar- 
isees, saying, ^'When will the Kingdom of God come? " 
His answer is, ' ' The Kingdom of God cometh not with ob- 
servation." You will not find it by watching for some- 
thing outward, by demanding a sign for its authority, or by 
seeking it in formal observances. The Kingdom of God is 
within you. If you find it not there, you will find it 
nowhere. 

To the same Christ came the disciples. ' ' Lord, teach 
us to pray. And He said unto them, W^hen ye pray, say. 
Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
Thy Kingdom come," (Luke 11: 1, 2). In other words. He 
gave them what they desired, a form of prayer, by the use 
of which they might hasten the advent of the Kingdom. 
To the Pharisee who did not desire the Kingdom, Christ 
said, * ' Look into your own hearts. To the disciples, who 
did desire it. He said, use this form of prayer for the com- 
ing of the Kingdom. The gulf between the old and new 
Kingdom is not to be found in the outward observance, but 
in the inward motive, in the spirit of the worshipper. 

For Himself and for His disciples, Christ claimed absolute 
freedom from the ecclesiastical obligations of the Temple. 
When St. Peter, with characteristic impulsiveness, com- 
mitted himself and his Lord to the payment of the annual 
Temple Tax, Christ at once repudiated the obligation. '<' The 
Law and the Prophets were until John, since then the King- 
dom of God is preached." The sons of the New Kingdom 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 99 

''are free" from the ecclesiastical claims of the Temple. 
Yet with loving consideration for St. Peter and all like him, 
Christ sent the mortified fisherman to get the required silver 
that he might make good his own hasty words : and, more 
important still, that they might not, by their own freedom 
cause any devout Hebrew to offend. Plainly the freedom 
of the Kingdom was not freedom to become a stumbling- 
block to others. (Matt. IT : 24-27.) 

The same perfect moral balance was displayed by the 
Master in the preceding period when He claimed for His 
disciples freedom from the ecclesiastical fasts of the ancient 
Church. But many who read the Master's words, do not 
follow His careful discrimination. The place of fasting as 
a religious act was not under consideration. That it had 
a place is taken for granted both by Christ and by the 
Pharisees. But the freedom of His disciples from the obli- 
gation of Jewish fasts, Christ plainly affirmed. That a 
time would come when His disciples should fast, he also 
affirmed with equal clearness. (Matt. 9 : 14, 15.) 

You remember that the Messiah was rejected at E'azareth 
for claiming that the l^ew Kingdom was as comprehensive 
as the Church of the ancient prophets, which ministered to 
Gentiles as well as to Jews. Now, rejected at Capernaum, 
the Messiah of Israel makes Himself the Messiah of the 
Gentiles. He teaches in their cities, heals multitudes of 
their sick, and gives His loaves and fishes to needy heathen. 
And it was a great multitude of ' ' heathen dogs ' ' (whose 
sick had been healed) that did what the sons of Jerusalem 
did not do, they "glorified the God of Israeiy (Matt. 
15:21-37.) 

It was to bigoted sons of Abraham, who counted all others 
''sons of perdition," that the Master spoke the warning 



100 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

parables of '^ The Two Sons," *' The Wicked Husband- 
man," and the "King's Marriage Feast." Their lesson 
Christ condensed in the words, ' ' Yerily I say unto you, 
that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of 
God before you. ' ' Yea, ' ' the Kingdom of God shall be 
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the 
fruits thereof." (Matt. 21 : 31, 32, 43.) 

The Training of the Twelve began as soon as they were 
appointed to the Apostleship. The Sermon on the Mount 
was spoken, first of all, for the Twelve, then for all who 
should believe through them. The missionary tour upon 
which Christ immediately took them, (recall its manifold 
restorations of body and soul) put before the Apostles, as no 
words could have done, the mission of the Kingdom. Yet 
a year later we find them clinging to selfish ambitions which 
blind their eyes and dull their ears to the sublime purpose 
of their Master — whom they devoutly love, often misunder- 
stand, and sometimes fear. 

This is the state of mind in which the Twelve begin their 
final year with the Master. He knew the nearness of His 
death, the great responsibilities soon to fall upon them. 
This knowledge makes their training His dominant purpose. 
Even when His words are addressed to others, they are, by 
personal instruction or private interpretation, made a part 
of the Apostles' training. The miracles, bringing life and 
blessing to others, were to the Twelve object lessons of a 
measureless mercy that never could be forgotten. Such 
miracles as the shekel in the fish's mouth, walking on the 
water, and the destruction of the barren fig-tree, were a 
part of the ^private schooling of the Apostles. Later they 
remembered their Master's words! " Blessed are the eyes 
which see the things which ye see. ' ' 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 101 

That was a sublime confession made by the spokes- 
man of the Twelve at Caesarea Philippi, more so than the 
speaker himself realized ; for when (a little later) Christ fore- 
told His approaching death, the same impulsive Apostle took 
Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But the Master 
answered < ' Get thee behind me, satan ; thou art an offense 
unto me? " (Matt. 16 : 23.) We think of the Transfigura- 
tion as a glorious expression of God's approval, and so it 
was to the Son. But to the leaders of the Twelve it was an 
instruction, and a rebuke. 

'< What was it ye disputed among yourselves by the way? 
But they held their peace ; for by the way they had dis- 
puted among themselves, who should be the greatest." 
(Mark 9 : 33, 34.) Remember these pupils had been attend- 
ing the school of Christ for over two years ! So " Jesus 
called a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of 
them, and said, Yerily I say unto you. Except ye be 
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter 
into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall 
humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in 
the Kingdom of Heaven. And whoso shall receive one such 
little child in my name receiveth Me. But whoso shall 
offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were 
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, 
and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. ' ' (Matt. 
18 : 2-6.) Could the Twelve be more plainly taught the 
glory of child -likeness, and the preciousness of child-life in 
the New Kingdom? 

When the Master at the disciples' request gave them the 
Lord's Prayer, He explained, only one of its petitions, that 
on forgiveness. Why? Because He was adapting His 
teaching to the needs of His pupils. St. Peter thought he 



102 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

was erecting a magnanimous standard when he said, *' Lord, 
how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? 
till seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, 
Until seven times; but. Until seventy times seven." The 
Master's real answer is the parable of the Unmerciful Serv- 
ant. His application is *^ So shall my heavenly Father do 
also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one 
his brother their trespasses." (Matt. 18 : 21-35.) 

We catch a glimpse of the extensweness of the Master's 
missionary training school when we see Him sending out 
seventy missionaries at once. ISTote also their orders. Go 
not to Gentiles or Samaritans (this is His own mission) Go 
'' to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as ye go, 
preach, saying. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal 
the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils : 
freely ye have received, freely give." (Matt. 10:5:15.) 
And what is to be their compensation? The scanty food of 
sheep amid wolves, with hatred, persecutions, scourgings, 
and possible death. For ' ' the disciple is not above his 
Master. " ' ' If th^y have called the Master of the house 
Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His 
household?" (Matt. 10:25.) 

Do the words of the Master sound strange to you? When 
did physical warfare ever promise ease and comfort? Is not 
the Christ's spiritual warfare against sin, satan, and death 
the most real of all warfares? There are compensations, — 
not of this world. The King's orders are spiritual. Ye 
are ambassadors of the Messiah. *' He that receiveth you, 
receive th Me, and he that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that 
sent Me. And, whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, 
shall save it. ' ' 

We catch a glimpse of the intensity the Master's training 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATIOK 103 

in His words : ^ ' Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, 
which is hypocrisy." The words are spoken to those He 
is training in righteousness and truth. The men He 
denounces are also teachers ; teachers who made pretenders, 
evaders, and Jesuits. They are the only class He ever 
denounced, for they are the only class who were shutting 
the Kingdom of Heaven against souls by teaching that evil 
is good and lies are truth, that pretense is prayer and sin is 
righteousness ; that love, mercy and charity are the work of 
Beelzebub, not the work of the Holy Spirit. They are the 
only teachers who so utterly perverted souls as to make 
their salvation an impossibility. Therefore, upon them and 
their satanic teaching falls the most awful denunciations that 
ever passed the lips of the all-merciful Son of Man. 

Yet in the burning intensity of His love for the helpless 
children of His Father, who were being made twofold 
' ' children of hell ' ' His heart breaks into a pitying cry for 
the wicked. O mistaught, misled, and sinful souls ! * ' O 
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and 
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I 
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gather- 
eth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto 
you. Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say. Blessed 
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matt. 23 : 37, 
38, 39.) 

The Kingdom Calling and Rejecting Men. We all joy 
in thinking of the universality of the call of Christ. We 
often forget the human rejections. The kingdom of sin and 
death is the only one that rejects nobody. Every other 
organization on the earth has some standard by which men 
are measured, and accepted, or rejected. At the Jordan 



104 HOW TO UNDERSTAKD THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Christ's first call, ''Come and see," measured John and 
Andrew. '' Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be 
born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God," was the 
spiritual standard by which Mcodemus was called to accept- 
ance or rejection. 

So always, every soul who came into the holy presence of 
the Son of Man was measured by His standard. In the 
heart-searching light of that standard every man was revealed 
to himself. The divine call compelled acceptance or rejec- 
tion. There was no middle ground. To him who is indif- 
ferent to the call, the words of the Master are, '' He that is 
not with Me is against Me." (Luke 11 : 23.) To him who 
is seeking the Kingdom the Master says, ''He that is not 
against us is for us," (Luke 9 : 50.) Each is a partial state- 
ment. In its larger sense the message is the same to both. 
There is but one Kingdom of God. The Messiah's claim 
dominates and excludes all others. In the soul's relation 
to the Son of God there is no jplacefor neutrality. No man 
ever enters His presence and leaves it unchanged. He is a 
better man, or a worse. He is (by his own decision) a 
rejected man or an accepted disciple. 

So was the guileless Nathaniel called from his prayer 
under the fig-tree, and the Samaritan woman from her sins 
in the city. So in the very courts of the Temple, the Jew- 
ish Rulers found their rejection; and in their synagogue 
worship the people of Nazareth in bigotry and blindness 
rejected themselves. The fishermen were called from their 
ships, the hated publican from his booth, the fallen woman 
from her sins. And in their whole-hearted surrender to 
the call, they found their acceptance. Yet, in the same 
period, the Rulers of Israel cry, " Blasphemy! " when the 
paralytic's sins are forgiven, the pious Scribes condemn 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 106 

Christ for loving '^ publicans and sinners," and the Jesuitical 
Pharisees call Christ's miracles the work of Beelzebub, thus 
shutting themselves out of the Kingdom. 

It is in this period of Christ's divine claims that the in- 
vitation of the Kingdom becomes unmistakably a call 
to judgment, a challenge to accept or reject Him who is the 
soul's Light and Life. " Come unto me, aU ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And one 
replies, ^ ' I will follow Thee, Lord, but let me first go bid 
them farewell, which are at home. But Jesus answers, 
' ' 'No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking 
back, is fit for the Kingdom of God." (Luke 9 : 61, 62.) 
Another said, " I will follow, but. Lord, suifer me first to go 
and bury my father." Jesus answers, '' Follow me; and let 
the dead [in heart] bury their dead [in body.] (Matt. 
8:21, 22.) 

The Call of the Kingdom is absolute. It is the highest 
of all calls, ' ' Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. ' ' The 
man who would guide the plow of a King, cannot do it with 
half of his heart. The man who puts domestic obligations 
above divine ones, is unfitted for the Kingdom. The man 
who loves his money more than his Master, rejects the King- 
dom of God. But even the surrender of all these is not 
enough. ' ' If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast 
it from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life with one 
eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." 
(Matt. 18:9) ''It is letter for thee to enter into life.'*'' 
This the judgment of Divine Love. 

The Divine Nature of the King is revealed in this period 
as in no other. In the first stage of His ministry, the Mas- 
ter privately revealed His Holy Office to the Samaritan 
woman. During the second stage, the emphasis of His 



106 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

teaching fell upon the nature of the Kingdom. But the 
time has now come for the Son of Man to reveal Himself 
to the world. He begins with His own Apostles. ' ' Whom 
say ye that I am? " The answer of St. Peter, '' Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God," finds its supreme 
importance in the reply of the Master, — '' Blessed art thou, 
Simon-Barjona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 
16 : 17) It is strikingly characteristic of the Master's teach- 
ing, that He connects His exaltation with His humiliation. 
He will not allow His disciples to think of His glory apart 
from His suffering. 

So, ' ' From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his 
disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer 
many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and 
be killed, and be raised again the third day. ' ' Then calling 
all His disciples. He said, ''Whosoever will save his life 
shall lose it ; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake 
and the gospel's, the same shall save it." (Mark 8 : 35) 
<' The disciple is not above his Lord." For both, the only 
path to blessedness is through the valley of humiliation, and 
the gate of suffering. 

The Son of Man will not glorify Himself. Therefore He 
is glorified by His Father. The Transfiguration marks the 
summit of Christ's ministry. The Apostles, for the first 
time, hear the voice of God, and see shining through their 
Master's earthly body, the dazzling glory of heaven. They 
are above measure exalted. They desire always to remain 
amid superhuman brightness. But as they come down from 
the mountain, their Master said, '' Let these words sink into 
your ears, " " The Son of Man is delivered into the hands 
of men, and they shall kill Him ; and after that He is killed 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 107 

He shall rise the third day. But they understood not that 
saying, and were afraid to ask Him." (Mark 9 : 31, 32.) 

< ' Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the 
Son of Man also confess before the angels of God ; but he 
that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the an- 
gels of God." (Luke 12 : 8, 9.) Is it not a prompt, and 
characteristic fulfilment of this promise that the next rev- 
elation of His Messianic Mission is made to a blind beggar 
who had been cast out of the synagogue because he had 
dared to confess Him before the browbeating Rulers of 
Israel? 

The Son of Man carefully veils His glory from all save 
His own trusted followers. But His real nature. His true 
relation to the Father, is another matter. His hour has 
come to bear witness before all that the Son of Man is the 
Son of God. His cross stands out before His eyes. Its 
shadow already falls upon His heart. His human spirit is 
saddened. His words take a deeper meaning. As never 
before His teachings concerns Himself^ His relation to God 
and man, to death and life, to time and eternity. His 
teaching is utterly unlike that of earlier periods. He is no 
longer a King demanding the obedience and loyalty of His 
subjects. He is a Saviour seeking to save His people. He 
is a Divine Deliverer who saves by the Sacrifice of Himself. 

He appears at the Feast of Tabernacles. For the first 
time in His Father's City, and His Father's House, He an- 
nounces plainly that He is the Son of God. The Rulers and 
people of Judea may believe or disbelieve, may accept or 
reject His claims, but they cannot escape hearing them. He 
puts upon them the responsibility which comes from hearing 
the truth. He compels them to make a decision. 

The multitudes at the feast are discussino: His character. 



108 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

When suddenly upon their ears fall the words — '' My teach- 
ing is not Mine, but His that sent me. " < * If any man will 
do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak of Myself." (John 7 : 14-17.) <' I 
am the light of the world ; he that folio weth Me shall not 
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." <* If I 
judge, My judgment is true ; for I am not alone, but I and 
the Father that sent Me." (John 8 : 12-16.) '<■ Ye are from 
beneath ; 1 am from above ; ye are of this world ; I am not 
of this world." (John 8:23.) *^If ye continue in My 
word, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
you free." (John 8, 31, 32.) '' I proceeded forth and came 
from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me." 
'< Which of you convinceth Me of sin? And if I say the 
truth, why do ye not believe Me? " (John 8 : 42-46.) 

** Yerily, verily, I say unto you. If a man keep My saying, 
he shall never see death." '' If I honour Myself, My hon- 
our is nothing ; it is My Father that honoureth Me ; of whom 
ye say, that He is your God. " " Your father Abraham re- 
joiced to see My day ; and he saw it, and was glad. ' ' (John 
8:51-56.) ''Yerily, verily, I say unto you, before 
Abraham was, I am." (John 8 : 58.) There is no mistaking 
these solemn and emphatic words. The Speaker is claiming 
to have existed before Abraham, to have come down from 
Heaven, to be the Son of God. It is impossible for those 
who hear such words to assume an attitude of neutrality. 
They are compelled to believe that He is speaking words of 
divine truth, or words of human blasphemy. The Jewish 
multitude have already decided that He is speaking blas- 
phemy. They seize stones to destroy Him. 

Two months later (at the Feast of Dedication) the Son of 
Man again appears in the Courts of the Temple. Once 



THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 109 

more the people are divided by His divine claims, ** Then 
came the Jews round about Him and said unto Him, how 
long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou he the Christy 
tell us plainly. '''' Jesus answers, <<I told you, and ye be- 
lieved not. The works that I do in My Father's name, they 
bear witness of Me. But ye believe not, because ye are not 
of My sheep." '^ My sheep hear My voice, and I know 
them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal 
life, and they shall never perish ; neither shall any man pluck 
them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, 
is greater than all ; and no man is able to pluck them out 
of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. Then 
the Jews took up stones again to stone Him." (John 10: 
24-31.) 

Four months later the Son of Man is arrested for blas- 
phemy. He stands before His accusers. The High Priest 
presses home the accusation. '* I adjure thee, by the living 
God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son 
of God." Jesus calmly answers, ''Thou hast said; never- 
theless I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man 
sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds 
of heaven. ' ' The High Priest rends his clothes and cries, 
" He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we 
of witnesses? Behold now ye have heard His blasphemy ! 
What think ye? " They answer, " He is guilty of death." 
(Matt. 26 : 63-66.) 

His enemies have officially certified to the fact of His 
divine claims. Their next step is to secure His death for 
blasphemy. This the High Priests accomplish by solemnly 
testifying before Pilate, ' ' By our law He ought to die heeause 
Ee made Himself the Son of God.'' (John 19 : 6-8.) 



110 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 
CONSTBUCTIVE STUDIES. 

What imagery does Christ use in the early parables in the Period of 
Organization? (St. Mk. 4: 26. St. Matt. 13: 24). Is this imagery used in the 
Period of Self- Revelation ? (St. Matt. 18:15-35. St. Luke, chapter 15). 
Did the Master ever use the imagery of sin to teach righteousness ? Did He 
ever use an imagery not taken from earth or heaven ? (St. Luke, chapter 
16). The purpose of the parables in the Period of Organization was to 
showman's relation,— to whom ? (St. Mk. 4:13-20. St. Matt. 13:44-50). 
What relation of man is taught during the Period of Self -Revelation ? 
(St. Luke 10: 25-37). What is the relation between Christ's didactic and 
parabolic teaching? (St. Luke 12 : 13-34. St. Matt. 13:45-46. St. Mk. 
10:17-31). To what class of hearers were the parables spoken? St. 
Matt. 18:21-35. St. Luke 10 : 25-37. St. Luke 12: 13-21. To whom have 
the parables the larger message, to Jews or Christians ? 



CHAPTER X. 

EARLY PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-MANIFESTATION. 

The Order of Parabolic Teaching. The Master revealed 
truth gradually, as man was able to bear it. He spoke no 
parables in the preparatory period. The hour for parables 
had not come. Because the hour had come we found them 
in the Period of Organization. They were devoted to one 
subject, the I^ature and Value of the Kingdom, the same 
subject to which His direct teaching was devoted. We have 
just finished our study of Christ's direct teaching in the 
Period of Self- Manifestation. Knowing the order and defi- 
niteness of the Master's plans we expect to find in His para- 
bles the same truths which we found in His didactic instruc- 
tion. We are not disappointed. The parables of this period 
are wholly given to teaching Man's Relation to his Neigh- 
bor, and to his God. 

Remember also that this period is the main one for the 
training of the Twelve. Christ purposely kept away from 
the large cities with their friendly crowds, scoffing Scribes, 
and hypocritical Pharisees. In remote districts, and even 
in heathen solitudes. He seeks quiet hours for personal 
instruction. The parables of this period are spoken for 
Apostolic ears. When this is not the case, the Master 
turns from the multitude and applies His parables to His 
own disciples. 

The Imagery of the Parables of this Period is based 
upon the manners and customs of the age in which the 

111 



112 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Master spoke. To many readers this presents difficulties 
not found in earlier study, and demands more careful ap- 
plication that we may grasp the lesson it conveyed to its first 
hearers. To miss the meaning it had for the disciples is to 
miss the truth it has for us. Moreover, at this stage of His 
teaching, Christ dares to do what few teachers have ever 
done. He uses the customs of the wicked to teach the 
righteousness of the Kingdom. On the selfishness and 
meanness of man He builds a parable to teach the perfect 
love and mercy of God. Let us be prepared to study, not 
to stumble at this change of imagery. 

The Grouping of the Parables of this Period is the his- 
torical order in which they were spoken. This corresponds 
with the order of the Master's didactic teaching. Its twenty 
parables fall into two groups. The subject of the first 
twelve is Man's Eelation to Man; of the final eight it is 
Man's Eelation to God, and the Final Judgment. Again, 
the twelve on the relation of mankind, contain three 
minor groups : (a) the Duties of IS'eighbors, (b) the Duties 
of Brothers, and (c), the Duties of Trustees. It is this group 
of Twelve that we study in this chapter. The Unity of 
the group is seen in the following outline : 

III. MAN'S RELATION TO MAN IN THE KINGDOM. 

(a) Tfie Duties of NeigTibors in the Kingdom. 

The Merciless Neighbor, " The Unmerciful Servant." 
The True Neighbor, " The Good Samaritan." 
The Grasping Neighbor, " The Rich Fool." 
The Ungrateful Neighbor, "The Great Supper." 
The Heartless Neighbor, " The Friend at Midnight." 

(5) The Duties of Brothers in the Kingdom. 

The Self-righteous Brother vs. The Pitiful, "The Lost Sheep." 
The Diligent Sister vs. The Indifferent, "The Lost Coin." 
The Repentant Brother vs. The Unforgiving, " Prodigal Son." 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 113 

(c) The Duties of Stewards in the Kingdom. 

The Dishonest Trustee vs. The True, "The Unjust Steward.'* 
The Self-indulgent Trustee, " The Rich Man and Lazarus." 
The Agnostic and Inhuman Trustee, "The Unjust Judge." 
The Self-righteous Trustee, " The Pharisee, and Publican." 

The Duties of Neighbors, The Merciless Neighbor. 
*<The Unmerciful Servant." (Matt. 18:21-35) is a^W- 
vate lesson given to St. Peter, and his fellow disciples, in 
answer to his question, " How oft shall I forgive? Until 
seven times? " The Apostle thought his suggestion a very 
generous one. Seven was the number of perfection. A 
prophet of the Old Kingdom had not dared to say as many. 
(Amos 1 : 3) The imagery of the parable is based on an- 
cient Jewish law. The creditor could sell the debtor, his 
family, and all he possessed to pay his debts. ISTote the dis- 
tinction between the parable's imagery and its teaching. 
(The parable actually condemns the custom on which it is 
built). The servant owes his king a sum greater than it is 
possible for him to pay. The king in his kindness gives the 
servant more than he asks (delay), he cancels the entire 
debt. The contemptible cruelty of the forgiven debtor in 
thrusting a fellow servant into prison (he could not sell him) 
arouses the righteous indignation of his fellow servants who 
report him to his lord. The king promptly reverses his 
judgment and puts the wicked servant (where he had un- 
mercifully thrown his fellow servant) into prison until he 
should pay all his debt. To the school of the Twelve, the 
Master said, " So likewise shall My heavenly Father do 
also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one 
his brother their trespasses." In the Master's Kingdom 
the first duty of a neighhor is — to love and forgive. 

The True Neighbor, ' ' The Good Samaritan ' ' (Luke 
10 : 25-37) was Christ's reply to a lawyer ; to one whose duty 



114 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

it was to know, and to expound the Law of Moses. His 
question was asked not to learn but to tempt. Compelled 
by the Master to answer his first question, he {to justify 
himself) asks another, '' Who is my neighbor? " (Did he 
think there was danger in helping one who was not a neigh- 
bor?) The vivid picture of the traveler who fell among 
brigands, follows. Stripped and half-dead, the poor victim 
is passed by a priest (an official of the Law), and left to die. 
Next comes a Levite (an inferior servant of the Law), who 
also passes by. Last of all comes the Samaritan, a member 
of a hated mongrel race. He does what the law had not 
done, and does it generously, not because the victim is a 
Samaritan, or a Jew, but because he is a mamj^ and in sore 
need. '' What think ye," who proved himself a neighbor? 
The lawyer is compelled to admit that it was the Samaritan, 
(he does not use the hated name). ' ' Go and do thou like- 
wise ! ' ' The Master teaches the lawyer and the disciple 
that in His Kingdom, every man is every man's neighbor, 
regardless of race, nationality, or religion. His Kingdom 
is universal, the true neighbor is a universal neighbor. 

The Covetous Neighbor, '^The Kich Fool," (Luke 
12 : 13-21) is the Master's warning to a self-seeker whose 
covetousness would stop the progress of God's Kingdom to 
hasten his own interests. A ^ ' certain man ' ' occupies the 
whole field of the parable. There is no room for friend, 
neighbor, or needy brother. He is rich, too rich to be 
happy. He talks over his troubles with the wisest man he 
knows, — himself. They agree perfectly, for both are 
equally grasping, unneighborly, and Godless. By building 
new, and bigger barns for his over-abundant harvests he 
will solve his problem, and regain his happiness. ' ' Life, 
thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 115 

ease, eat, drink, and be merry ! " It was not his life, but 
his God that answered him, * ' Thou fool, this night thy life 
shall be required of thee. " " So is he that lay eth up treas- 
ure for himself, and is not rich towards God. ' ' To this He 
adds, (for the disciples, and for us) an inspired commentary 
on His own words. (Kead Luke 12 : 22-34.) 

The Ungrateful Neighbors, " The Great Supper," 
(Luke 14 : 15-24) was spoken at the table of a Euler and a 
Pharisee. Many other Pharisees present, perhaps the Mas- 
ter was the only guest who was not a Pharisee. They 
watched Him with eyes of hate, they Listened with ears that 
itched with wickedness. For, had He not condemned their 
scramble for the best seats, and foretold their final shame? 
Had He not dared to rebuke their host for inviting the^n ; 
instead of some lame mendicant or blind beggar ? It was the 
Master's mention of "the resurrection of the just," which 
prompted a Pharisee (with self-righteous certainty of his 
own place) to exclaim, ' ' Blessed is he that shall eat bread 
in the Kingdom of God." Our Lord's answer is this 
parable. 

It is a parable of prophetic warning against selfish in- 
gratitude. The Old Kingdom has ceased to seek God's 
righteousness. Its doom is at hand. Yet the Son still ex- 
tends the gracious invitation of His Father, But the Divine 
J^eighbor's invitation is not accepted. The invited care not 
for His table, their own is more attractive. The happiness 
He offers does not appeal to them. In every case they reject 
His loving invitation in order to be happy, — in their own self- 
ish and ungrateful way. He does not compel them to come. 
He does, by the force of His love, compel the neglected and 
the outcast, the sinners and the submerged to overcome their 
fears and enjoy His feast. The Jews who heard the words 



lie HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

of the Master did not heed His warning. Has it no lesson for 
Christians ? 

The Heartless Neighbor. " The I'riend at Midnight/' 
(Luke 11:5-8) like that of the "Unmerciful Servant/' is 
based, not upon the likeness but upon the unliheness of things 
earthly, and things heavenly. The parable contradicts by its 
teaching the conditions on which it is built. Here (even 
more than there) the Master dares to turn to the evil and 
use it to teach the good. He makes the heartlessness of a 
human neighbor the basis for teaching the self-sacrificing 
love of the Divine Neighbor. 

The Master had, at their own request, just given His dis- 
ciples the Royal Prayer, which in brief comprehends the es- 
sential needs of every member of the Kingdom. In the 
parable the good neighbor persists in his prayer for bread 
(to meet the great need of a neighbor in distress) and will 
not be stopped by any excuse. His request is neither un- 
reasonable nor unjust. The heartless man at whose gate 
he stands claims a neighbor's right and must live up to 
a neighbor's responsibilities. And the heartless neighbor, is 
by his selfish desire to be rid of a true neighbor, compelled to 
answer his prayer. The Master's question is, " If a son shall 
ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a 
stone ? or if he ask a fish, will h,e for a fish give him a ser- 
pent ? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scor- 
pion?" (Luke 11: 11-12.) 

The Master's promises are absolute. But He takes it for 
granted that wo ask for the real loaf, not a stone which re- 
sembles it; for the true fish, not for a fishlike serpent; for 
the actual Qgg, and not a scorpion. " If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much 
more *' shall your heavenly Father give all things needful for 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF 8ELF-REVELATI0N. 117 

His child's body and spirit. And likewise refuse to give 
stones and serpents, even though His foolish children believe 
them to be loaves and fishes. 

Duties of Brothers in the Kingdom : — The Self-righteous 
Brother vs. the Pitiful. '' The Lost Sheep/' (Luke 15: 3-7) 
is the first of a group of three parables which teach with 
a powerful and tender persuasiveness, the duties of brothers. 
Christ's love is being answered by the confidence of the out- 
cast, and the affection of the sinner. He is the true Elder 
Brother. He meets them more than half w^ay, associates with 
them, accepts their invitation, and eats with them. The 
Scribes and Pharisees (separatists and hypocrites) are of- 
fended, and blindly fault the Faultless One. This parable 
is the Master's reply to Pharisaic religionism. " What man 
of you having an hundred sheep " would fail to leave the 
ninety and nine, or cease to seek for the lost until it was 
found ? Would you not bring it home on your shoulders re- 
joicing? Then "how much more" should ye seek, and re- 
store a straying soul, your brother in the family of God. Ye 
count yourselves righteous in seeking straying sheep, and 
sneering at straying souls. But " I say unto you * * * 
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more 
than over ninety and nine just persons which need no 
repentance." 

The Diligent Sister vs. the Indifferent.— " The Lost 
Coin" (Luke 15:8-10.) The preceding parable began 
with, " What man of you," this one with, " AMiat woman." 
Doubtless there were among the Master's listeners Pharisa- 
ical women, as well as men. It teaches the same lesson, the 
value of the lost. The emphasis falls upon the woman's 
faithful and persistent search for what has been committed 
to her care; a faithfulness which stops not until the lost, 



118 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

becomes the found coin. Its value is much less than that of a 
sheep yet her faithfulness is equal to the shepherd's. Like 
the shepherd, the good woman rejoices over the finding of her 
treasure. The Master adds, " Likewise, I say unto you, 
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15:10.) 

The Repentant Brother vs. the Unforgiving. — " The 
Prodigal Son." (Luke 15:11-32) is a misnamed parable. 
There are two prodigals, and the one who did not return to 
his father represents those for whose special instruction the 
parable was spoken. " A certain man had two sons," 
Pharisee and Publican, Jew and Gentile, all alike are the 
children of one Father, brothers in the same household. All 
alike have sinned, need to be saved from themselves, and re- 
stored to God. 'No found sheep or coin moves the heart like 
the restoration of a son. ^N'o other parable appeals to us with 
so much of human interest, and divine suggestion. 

The younger son, urged on by a false ideal which made 
life mean indulgence and animal gratification, demands his 
legal share of the property. He obtains it, and starts to en- 
joy a license which he blindly calls freedom. He has his 
short and mad indulgence. Then he is compelled to face its 
results. Money gone, false friends gone, freedom gone, re- 
spect gone; shame and degradation are left. He offers him- 
self to anybody who will keep him from starving. He becomes 
a swineherd, and is left to eat swine's food. In bitterness he 
recalls the father he basely deserted; the dear old home, 
where even the servants have freedom. He comes to himself, 
his real self, the old-home self. His heart cries out in peni- 
tence, " I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 
Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee, and 
am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 119 

thy hired servants/' (Luke 15: 18-19.) His Father's kiss 
of forgiveness is given before it can be asked. He is restored 
to sonship. The family on earth (like the family in heaven) 
rejoices over the salvation of a penitent soul. 

But there is an elder brother. He returns from a distant 
field. He hears the glad music, and is immediately suspici- 
ous — of what ? He starts to find — ^not his father, but a serv- 
ant. From him, he demands an explanation. The servant's 
reply, ^^ Thy hrotJier is come," " thy father hath received him 
safe and sound," starts all his latent rage. He will not join in 
the festivities, he will not enter the house! So the loving 
father leaves the feast, comes out, and entreats him. His 
love is answered by upbraidings. The son recounts the years 
he has served, the obedience he has given, the absence of feast 
days, for him. Then, in scorn and bitterness, " but as soon 
as this thy son (no brother of his) is come, who hath de- 
voured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the 
fatted calf ! " Did the younger son in all his sin denounce 
his father, or repudiate his relationship ? Was the elder son's 
labor that of a loving son, or a selfish servant ? Did not his 
attitude, his unloving words, his legal claims, represent the 
exact attitude of the Scribes and Pharisees, and clearly ex- 
plain why they were denouncing the Son of Man for seeking 
and forgiving sinners ? 

The Duties of Trustees in the Kingdom. The Dis- 
honest Trustee vs. The True. " The Unjust Steward," 
(Luke 16:1-12) begins a group of four parables which, 
from widely differing points of view, emphasize the same 
great truth, the responsibility of a trustee. Trustee here 
means anyone to whom a trust has been committed. The Un- 
just Steward is always a stumbling-block to readers who fail 
to distinguish between the imagery of a parable, and the les- 



120 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

son it teaches. Like the parables of the Unmerciful Servant, 
and the Friend at Midnight, the teaching here is based on the 
contrast between earthly customs and heavenly truth. The 
parable was spoken to the disciples. If the wicked steward 
is wise in his wickedness, " how much more " should the 
Apostolic Stewards be wise in their righteous trusts. The 
steward is entrusted with his master's large estate (so were 
the Jewish Eulers). He is charged with wasting the prop- 
erty. His master demands an accounting. The dishonest 
steward knows that the charge is true. He is unable to dig. 
He is ashamed to beg; what then? He has a scheme! He 
will make every debtor his friend. He has already wasted 
much. [Nfow (in the brief time left), he will waste more, 
and for his own advantage. He calls each debtor to account ; 
and then using the authority of his office, he cuts down the 
bill, one-half, one-third, or one-fifth. And Ms master, a man 
of the world, commends — what ? E'ot his dishonesty, but his 
sharpness, his quick-witted adaptation of worldly means to 
worldly ends. 

But what says our Master ? Use your Apostolic Steward- 
ship, not to make friends on earth, but in heaven. Be wise, 
not for time, but for eternity. " He that is faithful in that 
which is least is faithful also in much ; and he that is unjust 
in the least is unjust also in much. And if ye have not been 
faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you 
that which is your own? " (Luke 16: 10-12.) 

The Indifferent and Self-indulgent Trustee. "The 
Rich man and Lazarus." (Luke 16: 19-31) is the only one 
whose imagery is built upon man's condition between death, 
and the judgment. It is not spoken to teach the doctrine of 
the intermediate state. Yet as the imagery of Christ's para- 
bles (whether based upon the natural order of the world, or 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 121 

on contemporary manners and customs), are all true to 
historical conditions, we must believe that the imagery of 
this parable represents the essential conditions of man's state 
between death and the judgment. 

The covetous Scribes and Pharisees had greeted our Lord's 
portrait of the Unjust Steward with contemptuous sneers. 
He now puts before them the picture of another steward as 
indifferent and self-indulgent as themselves. And the Mas- 
ter traces the career of this steward not only on the earth, 
but into that world from which no man returns. 

The rich man lives like a king. His garments are regal in 
color and cost. His table is one of luxury. Every day is a 
royal feast day. His home is a palace, its counterpart is to 
be found only in the palaces of Herod and the High Priests. 
In vivid contrast is the picture of another man; a beggar, 
diseased, crippled. Daily he is brought to the rich man's 
gate to beg from the rich man's guests, or slaves. The beg- 
gar's misery is too obtrusive to be unseen. Yet even the un- 
clean dogs of the city are allowed to lick his sores. Had any- 
one called the rich man's attention to the beggar his answer 
doubtless would have corresponded to his deeds. ^ Am I this 
beggar's keeper ? " That his vast wealth and influence were 
trusts for which he must account, was a fact utterly foreign 
to his thought. 

The scene changes to the world of disembodied spirits. 
(The words in which it is painted, are necessarily those of 
this world.) The rich man and the beggar are both there, but 
iJiey have changed places! It is the beggar who is rich, 
spiritually rich. It is the rich man who is a beggar; a 
spiritual beggar praying for one drop of living water from 
the finger of Lazarus, "\\niat is the answer ? " Son, remem- 
ber ! " Didst not thou in thy lifetime receive good things ? 



122 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Were tliej for thyself alone ? Likewise Lazarus received evil 
things. Didst thou not allow evil to be thrust upon the help- 
less ? Therefore, " he is comforted, and thou are tormented." 
!Nay, Lazarus cannot return to the earth. If thy brothers 
" hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be pur- 
suaded though one rose from the dead." These last words 
were prophetic. When will they be perfectly fulfilled ? 

The Agnostic and Inhuman Trustee. " The Unjust 
Judge." (Luke 18:1-8) like the "Friend at Midnight," 
and the " Unjust Steward," is an example of the Master's 
daring use of the sinfulness of earth to teach the righteous- 
ness of heaven. The Judge, entrusted with the duty of cor- 
recting the injustice of others, is himself unjust. Standing 
before the people as God's trustee, he is in fact, God's ad- 
versary. Appointed to be the Trustee of Justice and mercy 
for the fatherless and the widow, he joins hands with their 
oppressors. To this inhuman agnostic comes a poor widow 
seeking justice. Her case is delayed, ignored, and indefi- 
nitely postponed ; but the widow will not cease her visits nor 
her cries for justice. At last, worn-out by her importunity, 
and solely for his own sinful ease, the Judge grants her 
prayer, and rights her wrongs. 

The parable is primarily addressed to the Apostles. Its 
lesson for them, and for us, is " men ought always to pray 
and not faint." For, said the Master, " hear what the un- 
just judge saith ! " Then if he, without love for God or man 
can grant the widow's prayer, " how much more " shall God 
vindicate " His own elect which cry day and night unto 
Him ! " E'evertheless, the flesh is weak. " When the Son of 
Man cometb will He find faith on the earth ? " 

The Self-righteous Trustee. " The Pharisee and the 
Publican." (Luke 18 : 9-14) was spoken " unto certain 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 123 

which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and 
(what always follows) despised others." " Two men went 
up into the Temple to pray." It was God's house for both, 
yet they stood far apart. One, was a Pharisee, an educated 
man, a teacher in Israel, a model of Jewish righteousness, a 
Trustee of God's truth and doctrine. The other was a 
Publican, a confessed sinner, a man who desired to be edu- 
cated in truth and righteousness. He needed all that the 
Pharisee stood for, all that he was supposed to teach, and to 
be. What was the attitude of the learned trustee towards 
the unlearned and needy pupil ? 

Listen, " The Pharisee stood, and prayed thus with him- 
self : " God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, ex- 
tortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this Publican. I 
fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess." 
The Publican, standing afar off, did not lift even his eyes 
toward heaven, but humbly smote his breast, saying, " God 
be merciful to me a sinner." 

The Publican had judged himself. The Pharisee had 
praised himself, and judged his neighbor. What was the decis- 
ion of the final Judge ? Of the Publican, Christ said, " I 
tell you this man went down to his house justified, rather 
than the other." 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

Before studying the next chapter try to answer the following questions. 
Wherein do the last parables of Christ differ from the earlier ? Carefully 
read Matt. 20 : 1-6; 21 : 28-31 ; 25 : 14-30, and Luke 19 : 12-26. What is 
the prevailing tone of the four parables ? What is the general subject of 
the four parables ? What is their relation to each other ? 

On what day in Holy Week did Christ utter his last parables ? What is 
the general subject of the last parables? Read carefully Matt. 21 : 33-46; 
22 : 1-14; 25 : 1-13; 25 : 31-46. What is tlieir tone? How are they re- 
lated to each other ? Wherein do the parables of the Talents, Pounds and 
Laborers differ? 



CHAPTEE XL 

LATER PARABLES 
IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-MANIFESTATION. 

The eight parables of this chapter are nearly all 
prophetic. They were spoken during the closing days of Our 
Lord's teaching. Six of the eight were uttered on the last 
day of His public ministry. His teaching and pleading is 
almost ended. He looks back upon a series of rejections by 
those He came to save, He looks forward and sees the destruc- 
tion of the Holy City, and the Jewish Nation. He weeps 
for the sorrows of those He loves, even in their sins. In 
these last hours He speaks with a solemn earnestness, with a 
sternness of condemnation not found in earlier parables. He 
pleads for a recognition of God's justice, He proclaims the 
certainty of God's judgment. The unity of His thought is 
seen in the following outline: — ■ 

Man's Relation to God, and the Final Judgment. 

(a) TTie Bewards of the Kingdom : — 

For making the most of Opportunities, — "The Vineyard Laborers." 
For Unequal Faithfulness to Equal Trusts, — " The Pounds." 
For Equal Faithfulness to Unequal Trusts,— "The Talents." 
For Actual, not Verbal Obedience,—" The Two Sons." 

(b) The Final Judgments of the King : — 

On the Betrayers of Divine Trusts,— "The Wicked Husbandmen." 
On Despisers of Divine Invitations, — " The Marriage Feast." 
On Ignoring Our Duty Towards God, — " The Virgins." 
On Ignoring Our Duty towards Man, — " The Sheep and Goats." 

124 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 126 

Rewards of the Kingdom. Making the Most of Oppor- 
tunities. '' The Laborers in the Vineyard." (Matt. 20 : 1-6) 
was spoken to the Apostles. St. Peter reminding his Lord 
that the Twelve had left all to follow Him asks, " What shall 
be our reward ? " The Master names a reward even larger 
than their expectations. Yet He adds, " But many that are 
first shall be last, and the last shall be first." He repeats 
the same warning at the close of the parable. Plainly this 
is the key to its interpretation. The real question is, " What 
determines who shall be last, and who first ? " All four para- 
bles on the Eewards of the Kingdom make (in principle) 
the same answer. If we do not find the basic truth which 
Christ is teaching within His parables — ^we shall not find it 
anywhere. 

The pivot on which the parable turns is the different hours 
at which the laborers began to labor. This point is empha- 
sized by the story ; by the householder's question to the later 
laborers ; by their answer to him ; by the protest of the all-day 
laborers ; and by the householder's answer to them. Why did 
the first laborers go to work in the morning? Because they 
had the opportunity. Why did not the third-hour men begin 
at the first hour? They did not have the opportunity. 
When did the sixth-hour, the ninth-hour, and the eleventh- 
hour men all begin their work? At the first hour of their 
opportunity. Does Christ here (or anywhere) teach that a 
man is responsible for not doing what he never had the op- 
portunity of doing? Is there any statement that there was 
a difference in the quality of the laborer's work ? 

In the commercial world, the laborer is paid for the time 
he labors. It is perfectly right he should be. The house- 
holder recognizes this when he agrees to pay a penny for a 
day's work. The laborers rightly held him to his agreement, 



126 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OP CHRIST. 

and he (with equal right) held them to theirs. But even in 
the commercial world an employer will sometimes add to a 
faithful laborer's wages, a gift. E'ot because he has earned 
it, but because he needs it; because his employer recognizes 
that the man " has done what he could " towards earning it. 
Could the angels do more ? 

The parable teaches that what an exceptional employer 
does occasionally, God does perpetually. The man who has 
had only one hour of opportunity, but has faithfully made 
the most of it, shall in no wise lose his reward. The Scribes 
and Pharisees claimed that everything in sight belonged to 
them. Were they not " first called " ? Had not Jehovah 
made a " legal agreement " with them ? Why should eleventh- 
hour Gentiles receive the same salvation as themselves ? 

The Apostles were officers in the 'New Kingdom. There 
was danger that they might think of God's obligations even 
as did their Jewish teachers. The vision of Christ was larger 
than the Apostles. It took in all the centuries before the 
judgment. It included the soul of the last black boy yet to 
be baptized in darkest Africa. So His parable says — The 
Father takes everything into account. Reckon not the hours 
of service, but make the most of your opportunity. For 
" Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." 

Unequal Faithfulness to Equal Trusts, " The Parable 
of the Pounds," (Luke 19 : 12) was spoken as Christ was 
nearing Jerusalem. The Disciples expected that " The King- 
dom of God was immediately to appear," The Master went 
forward knowing He was about to die. For Jerusalem was 
the City (in the parable) whose " citizens hated Him," and 
it was to Him they had said, " We will not have this man 
to reign over us." The Master knew the centuries that must 
elapse before He returned from the " far country " ; He knew 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 127 

the wickedness of His enemies; the fidelity of His true fol- 
lowers. 

In this parable all the workers have equal time and oppor- 
tunity; the same capital, and the same commercial advan- 
tages. The situation is clearly an ideal one; the very one 
which some good people believe would cure all economic evils 
to-day. Everyone has an equal amount of property, an equal 
social position. Nobody is last, and everyone is first. The 
conditions are angelic, but the workers are human. It is 
human nature, not heavenly freedom which decides results. 

The E'obleman returns and asks for an accounting, " Lord, 
thy pound hath gained ten pounds ! '' " Lord, thy pound 
hath gained five pounds." " Lord, here is thy pound, I have 
kept it laid up in a napkin." Everyone had received the 
same outward and earthly trust. Why are the returns so 
different? Because their faithfulness to inward trusts (of 
mind, and heart, and will) was so different ? The ten 
pounds, the five pounds, and the one pound, in each case, meas- 
ured the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of the man; and there- 
fore the amount of his reward. The parable implies that only 
one man, a faithless shirk, failed to receive some reward for 
his labor. And this poor worthless fellow adds insult to 
laziness, by blaming his Lord for his own miserable failure. 
E'ote the rewards of the Master, not ease, nor luxury, nor 
rest, but in every case, opportunity for larger ivork. And 
the shirk's reward? The loss of the one pound he had re- 
fused to use. Who received it? The man who had proved 
himself the most capable of using it. Remember, also, that 
every term in the parable stands for a spiritual fact, and an 
eternal truth. 

Equal Faithfulness to Unequal Trusts. " The Parable of 
the Talents," (Matt. 25 : 14) was spoken after that of the 



128 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Virgins. It is considered here because it is closely related to 
the " Vineyard Laborers/' and the " Pounds." The rewards 
of the laborers are based upon like faithfulness to unlike op- 
portunities. The rewards of the servants with the pounds is 
based upon unlike faithfulness to the same trust. In tbis 
parable we have another phase of the same great fact of man's 
personal responsibility to God. Here the fact is faced that 
all men are different; that they are unlike, not only in their 
opportunities (in the vineyard), and their faithfulness (to 
their pounds) ; they are unlike also in their trusts. They 
differ in their trusts of mental, moral and physical endow- 
ments; and also in those outward trusts which we call the 
opportunities of life. What then? If no two persons, or 
their conditions are exactly the same, what is Christ's standard 
for measuring the responsibilities of mankind ? What is the 
final basis of reward or penalty in the Kingdom ? 

A careful study of the parable reveals these facts, 
(a) The lord of the house called "his own" servants, or 
slaves. They belonged to him, therefore they were all ac- 
countable to him. (b) " He delivered unto them his goods." 
Nothing was their own. They were temporary trustees. 
They must render an account, (c) To one their lord gave 
(in round numbers) a thousand dollars, to another five hun- 
dred, to a third two hundred, l^o two men's trust was the 
same. Therefore no two men were accountable for the same 
amount. 

(d) Moreover, we are informed why no two men received 
exactly the same amount. The Lord knew his servants, their 
abilities, their limitations. So He gave " to every man ac- 
cording to his several ability." With loving consideration 
He gives to no man more than he is able to bear, (e) As the 



r 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 129 



size of each man's gift determines his responsibility, he who 
received the least, had the least for which to account. 

ll^K " After a long time " (f ) during which each servant is 

mm master of his own trust, the lord returns. Then (g) every 
servant is called to account for his own trust. In (h) every 

^^ft case, save one, the accounting is a joyful one ; and each serv- 

' ant receives the same commendation, and the same reward. 

But all had different trusts! (i) The Lord's words in no 

BP case referred to the amount of a man's trust, only to his per- 
sonal faithfulness. "Well done, good and faithful servant; 
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee 
ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." 
(Matt. 25:23.) The fact that each man had increased his 
lord's money in equal proportion, proved that each man had 
been equally faithful to his stewardship. 

Here, as in the parable of the Vineyard, a man's oppor- 
tunities are taken into account, for they (like his " goods ") 
either increased, or decreased his responsibilities. Here, as 
in the parable of the Pounds, it is not the amount of the 
man^s goods (there they were all alike) but the amount of 
each man's faithfulness which determines his reward. Here, 
as in the Pounds, there is one wicked servant who ignores 
his stewardship and repudiates his accountability. In both 
cases the judgment simply confirms the natural result of 
God's physical and spiritual laws. The man who refuses 
to use his opportunities or gifts, loses them; they go to him 
who will use them faithfully. Moreover, in all three parables 
the truth is plainly taught that he who is faif\iful, even in the 
least, " shall in no wise lose his reward." 

Actual not Verbal Obedience. " The Parable of the Two 
Sons," (Matt. 21:28-31') was spoken to the Scribes and 
Pharisees, They came to the Master demanding, " By what 



130 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OP CHRIST. 

authority doest thou these things ? " He answers by the 
counter-question, Whence was the authority of John the 
Baptist, from God or man? They dared not answer. For 
if the Forerunner had God^s authority, how much more had 
the Messiah Himself! But as they had rejected John's au- 
thority (but dared not confess it) so they were rejecting the 
authority of the Christ. 

In the parable the son who so glibly answers " I go, sir,'* 
represents the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees. The one 
who bluntly says, " I will not," yet later repents and obeys ; 
stands for the open sinner, who honestly confessed their sins 
and accepted John's baptism. Too blind to see themselves 
in the mirror of the parable, the Jewish Bulers, in answer 
to Christ's question, — Which one obeyed? promptly answer, 
" He that did the will of his father." The Master replies, 
**' The publicans and harlots go into the Kingdom of God be- 
fore you." Has the parable no lesson for the Church to-day ? 

The Four Final Parables were spoken on Tuesday of Holy 
Week. They differ from the preceding four mainly in their 
emphasis. The whole eight are a prophetic presentation of 
the rewards and penalties of the Kingdom. In the first four, 
the emphasis falls upon the rewards. In the last four, it falls 
upon the judgment of the wicked. They contain the last 
words of God's appointed Judge before He was murdered 
by the officers of God's first Church. 

The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matt. 21 : 33- 
46. Also, Mark 12. Luke 20) was spoken to the Rulers of 
the Nation. It is a vivid picture of Israel's great privileges, 
great sins, and approaching doom. It is condensed history, 
prophecy, and condemnation. The householder (Jehovah) 
plants a vineyard, fences it in, builds a wine-press, a water 
tower, and entrusts it to husbandmen during his lengthy ab- 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 131 

sence. At harvest-time he sends servant after servant to re- 
ceive his fruit. One is beaten, another stoned, another 
killed. Last of all he sends one they should reverence, his 
only son. Then they say, " This is the heir ! come let us kill 
him and the inheritance shall be ours.^' They kill the son. 

The Master, looking into the face of His eager listeners, 
said, " What will the lord of the vineyard do to those hus- 
bandmen ? " Quickly came the sympathetic reply, " He will 
destroy those miserable men, and give the vineyard to others." 
But some (who saw the parable's fearful meaning) said, 
" God forbid ! '' Then He who was about to be murdered 
looked into the angry faces of His murderers and pronounced 
His judgment. " Therefore I say unto you, the Kingdom of 
God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation 
bringing forth the fruits thereof." And the Scribes and 
Chief Priests sought to lay hands on Him in that very hour. 
Is further interpretation necessary? Is it too wicked a con- 
dition to have a modern application? Is the Church of the 
Gentiles true to her tremendous responsibilities ? 

Despisers of Divine Invitations. " The Parable of the 
Marriage Peast," (Matt. 22 : 1-14) at first follows the gen- 
eral lines of " The great Supper," (Luke 14: 15) but it dif- 
fers in its insertion of a minor parable into the main story, 
and, what is more important, is spoken for a different pur- 
pose. It is a prophetic portrayal of God's final judgment 
upon those who despise His invitations, or the divinely fij^ed 
conditions of their acceptance. 

The repeated rejection of the King's invitations (in the 
parable) and the contemptuous and cruel treatment of his 
servants, picture the same attitude that is displayed by the 
Rulers in the preceding parable. The merciful plans of God 
clash with the profane plans of man, therefore God is thrust 



132 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

aside ! But the King's invitation is to honor his son. Eefusal 
means a rejection of the son. " He came unto His own and 
His own received Him not." He came unto His own at 
^Nazareth, and they received Him not. He came unto His 
own at Capernaum, and they also received Him not. !N'ow 
He is speaking to His own at Jerusalem. They have already 
willed to reject Him, and only wait for a favorable hour to 
kill Him. Do you wonder that in the parable the King de- 
stroys those who would murder his son ? 

But the King's eternal purpose to bless His subjects cannot 
be defeated by man. As the first invitees proved themselves 
unworthy, the King now invites others. All (both bad and 
good), who do not scorn the invitation are accepted by the 
King, and the wedding is furnished with guests. This is 
Christ's prophetic picture of the Gentiles flocking into the 
Kingdom of God. But man is never perfect. The Gentile, 
like the Jew, is prone to spoil the right act by doing it in the 
wrong way. 

The King, pleased to meet his guests, enters the great re- 
ception room. All are clothed in the garments of fine white 
linen provided by their royal host. ISTo, not all. With sur- 
prise the King sees one in the dust-stained apparel of the 
highway. To accept a royal invitation and refuse to accept 
its conditions is a wilful insult, both to the King and to the 
royal Bridegroom. Yet with all kindness, the King speaks, 
" Friend, how comest thou in hither, not having a wedding 
garment? " The offender is speechless. He has done {after 
accepting the royal invitation) what those did who refused 
it. He has thrust aside God's will to make room for his 
own. Therefore, he is sent to join those he had imitated. 
Has any man truly accepted the King's invitation to repent- 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 133 

ance, obedience, and happiness who refuses to put on the 
Kingdom's garment of holiness ? 

Ignoring our Duty towards God. " The Parable of the 
Ten Virgins," (Matt. 25:1-13) was spoken on the slopes 
of the Mount of Olives. The last day of Christ's public 
ministry is at its close. The Apostles are asking about the 
end of the world, and the time of His return. The warning 
answer is, " Watch, ye know not what hour your Lord 
Cometh." The same warning is repeated at the close of the 
parable. They are its key. The parable begins in simple, 
rustic beauty; it ends in pathos deep and tragic. It is a 
prophetic picture of those who ignore their duty towards God. 

It opens with the bright and happy expectancy of a group 
of ten bridesmaids waiting in the twilight for the coming 
of a bridegroom (the Divine Bridegroom). Outwardly they 
are perfectly ready for his coming. All are dressed in the 
brilliantly colored wedding garments of the East; all wear 
their festival jewels, all have their lamps filled and burning. 
Joyful expectancy is seen on every face, is heard in merry 
songs, and rippling laughter. Seemingly nothing is lacking. 
And yet, " five are wise and five are foolish." There is un- 
expected delay. The darkness deepens, the bridegroom does 
not come. The virgins nod, and later all sleep. 

At midnight there is an awakening cry, " Behold the bride- 
groom Cometh ! " The cry receives an echoing cry of glad- 
ness from the wise virgins, but from the others a cry of dis- 
may. Our lamps are going out ! " Give us of your oil." 
The bridegroom had come when they " thought not." They 
were not watching or praying — ^were not ready for emergency. 
Their preparedness was superficial. Everyone had her lamp, 
but, alas, it was empty ! 

But '' while they went to buy, the bridegroom came ; and 



134 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

they that were ready went in with him to the marriage ; and 
the door was shut. Afterwards came also the other virgins, 
saying, Lord, Lord, open to ns ! But he answered and said, 
Verily, I say unto you, I know you not." (Matt. 25 : 10-12.) 
It was those who were " ready " when the door opened, 
" ready " before they slept, " ready " before they left home, 
that went to the wedding. The shut door could not be opened 
to the rabble crowd of the street. The real friends of the 
bridegroom were with him in the house. 

Ignoring our Duty towards Man. " The Parable of the 
Sheep and the Goats,'' (Matt. 25: 31-46) is not, so much a 
parable as a prophetic picture of the final judgment. It is 
spoken partly in didactic, partly in parabolic language. It 
pictures the hour, " When the Son of Man shall come in His 
glory," and sit upon His throne of judgment. The parable 
of the virgins taught the basic truth of the Kingdom, man's 
duty towards God. This enforces a truth which " is like unto 
it," Man's duty to his Neighbor. The judgments of Heaven 
cause universal astonishment. Earthly standards are all ig- 
nored. Judgments based on worldly honors, social place, or 
material conditions, are reversed. Many are astonished to 
find themselves in the company of the righteous; more are 
amazed to find themselves classed with the wicked. 

Countless thousands who had forgotten their good deeds 
hear the divine Judge declaring that when He was hungry 
they had given Him food; when He was thirsty, they had 
given Him drink; when He was a stranger, they had taken 
Him to their homes, and when He was sick, they had nursed 
Him. In their astonishment, they cry — Lord, we are not 
entitled to Thy commendation. We never ministered to Thee. 
But the Judge answers, " Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as 



PARABLES IN THE PERIOD OF SELF-REVELATION. 135 

ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye 
have done it unto Me." 

Yet still more amazed are the thousands who hear the di- 
vine Judge say, " Depart from me ! For I was an hungred 
and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; 
a stranger and ye took me not in ; sick and ye visited me not," 
" But Lord, Lord ! It is all a mistake I We never neglected 
Thee! If we had ever seen Thee hungry, or thirsty, or sick, 
we would out of our abundance, have ministered unto Thee." 
What does ihe Judge answer ? " Verily I say unto you, in- 
asmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, my 
brethren, ye did it not unto Me." 

The last parable of the Master is even as His first. The 
teaching of this parable is in all essentials, that of the 
" Sower." The good opportunity, like the good seed falls 
into all lives. What it shall bring forth is decided by the 
condition of the heart-soil into which it falls. If there is no 
place for the growth of the divine seed on earth, how can 
there be fruitage in God's Kingdom ? 



CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

What was the character of the last day of Our Lord's public ministry ? 
How did Christ prepare His disciples for the cross ? Luke 22 : 15 ; Matt. 
26 : 26-29. How did Our Lord comfort His disciples in view of His death ? 
Mark 14 : 27-29 ; John 14 : 2-3. What was the supreme claim of Christ ? 
Mark 14 : 62, Read carefully, devoutly, and picture to yourself the story 
of the cross in Matt, and John. Carefully compare the different appear- 
ances of Christ after His resurrectioQ. How are they related to His 
teaching ? 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 

We have reached the final stage of the Master's teaching. 
He has finished the message His Father gave Him to deliver. 
His public ministry is ended. Henceforth His Kingdom will 
be presented to the world not by Himself, but by those He has 
chosen out of the world. 

The last day of the public ministry of the Son of Man is 
one of bitter attack from the combined forces of Pharisees, 
Sadducees, and Herodian politicians. The day which follows 
it is the only one in Holy Week that has no record. It needs 
none. When we look back upon the crises of His minis- 
try, we see that for each He prepared Himself by personal 
prayer and communion with His Father. 

The Spiritual Preparation of the Apostles for the Cross 
followed that of the Master's; but His intense words 
and more intense object lessons found the minds of the 
Twelve, preoccupied by earthly hopes and ambitions. They 
were thinking of the old Passover and its uppermost seats. 
He was planning for a 'New Passover in which the humblest 
were the highest. They dreamed of authority in the l^ew 
Kingdom. He was preparing to lay down His earthly life. 
In the Upper Room, the longing of His heart finds utterance. 
" With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you 
before I suffer" (Luke 22: 15). But some of His hearers 
were arguing over who was the greater ! 

" Whether is greater he that sitteth at meat or he that 

136 



THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 137 

serveth ? " Then their Lord rises, takes a towel and begins 
to wash the Apostles' feet. When St. Peter, partially realiz- 
ing the keen rebuke of this act, and the awfulness of His 
Master's humiliation, cries out against it, his Lord's answer 
is, " What I do thou knowest not now ; but thou shalt know 
hereafter." (John 13:7.) Do we know? Or can we 
realize the awful meaning of His other words, " The Son of 
Man indeed goeth as is written of him ; but woe to that man 
by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Good were it for 
that man if he had never been born." (Mark 14: 21.) 

After the departure of Judas, the Son of Man " took bread 
and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and 
said, Take, eat ; this is my body. And He took the cup, and 
gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; 
for this is My blood of the 'New Covenant, which is shed 
for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will 
not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day 
when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom," 
(Matt. 26:26-29.) 

And this Holy Sacrament was, to the mind of Christ, the 
best possible method of preparing His Apostles for the com- 
ing sorrows of the cross; was the best way possible for the 
Son of God (who loved His own even unto the end) to 
express to them the measureless fullness of His love. So it 
comes to us as His preparation for our deepest sorrow, and 
our highest joy. It is " the way " of His love, " the door " 
into his life, our feast upon " The True Bread which came 
down from Heaven." In His love it is ours forever, until 
the human mystery becomes the divine reality in His 
heavenly Kingdom. 

To Strengthen His Apostles against Unbelief is the next 
effort of the Master's love. His method is to foretell what 



138 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OP CHRIST. 

is to come to Himself, and what will be its effect upon them, 
in order that when His words are fulfilled, they may remem- 
ber that their Master had foreseen and foretold them all. 
Over-confidence in self proves the way for despair of self. 
How plainly the Master saw this is revealed by His words. 
" All ye shall be offended because of Me this night : for it 
is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be 
scattered." But Peter said unto Him, " Although all shall be 
offended, yet will not I.'' (Mark 14: 27-29.) And yet the 
most vehement boaster became the most flagrant denier. 

JSTote how tenderly the Master loves His own. " Father, 
the hour has come." " I pray for them: I pray not for the 
world, but for them which Thou hast given Me ; * * * " And 
now I am no more in the world, * * * Holy Father, keep 
through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given 
Me. * * * ISTeither pray I for these alone, but for them also 
which shall believe on Me through their word." (John 
17:1-20.) 

Even in the hour of His agony he could not forget their 
need. " Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldest not thou watch one 
hour? Watch ye, and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." 
(Mark 14: 37, 38.) And how tenderly the Master guarded 
them in the hour of betrayal. It was He who was about to 
die that stepped forth between the armed band and His terri- 
fied Apostles. It was He who said, " Whom seek ye ? " "I 
am Jesus of l^azareth." " If ye seek Me, let these go their 
way," Then all the Apostles left Him and fled. 

To Comfort the Apostles Against His Death is another 
of the Master's last loving efforts. " Let not your heart be 
troubled. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it 
were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place 
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 



THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 139 

come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, 
there ye may be also.'' (John 14: 2, 3.) They must wait, 
yet they shall not be alone. " I will pray the Father, and 
He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide 
with you for ever. Even the Spirit of Truth." (John 
14:16.) 

" He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to 
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace 
I leave with you: My peace I bring unto you; not as the 
world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be trou- 
bled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14: 26, 27.) " As the 
Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you; continue ye in 
My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in 
My love. * * * This is My commandment. That ye love 
one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man 
than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 
15:9-13.) 

His Claims before the Cross are simply the culmination 
of the claims of His life. He had renounced His glory, re- 
nounced His right to claim human kindness, or common 
mercy; He had even renounced His life. But three things 
He could not renounce — ^His right to common justice. His 
right to assert the truth of His Messiahship, His right to 
assert the truth of His Divine Sonship. 

He stands and is questioned by the High Priest as to His 
teaching. He answers ^' I have spoken openly to the 
world: * * * and in secret have I said nothing. Why 
askest thou Me : ask them which heard Me, what I have said 
unto them." (John 18:20-21.) For this honest and out- 
spoken truth He is struck with a rod. To the coward who 
struck a bound and helpless prisoner. He answers, " If I 
have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why 



140 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

smitest tbou Me ? '' ( Jolm 18 : 23.) He neither resents the 
blow nor refuses to suffer; yet He claims His right to that 
common justice which is due even to the lowest of mankind. 

Regal and silent before false witnesses, the High Priest 
puts Him on oath. " I adjure thee by the living God, that 
thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." 
(Matt. 26: 63.) Jesus calmly answers, "I am." And for 
this testimony He is condemned to death, spit upon, mocked, 
reviled, smitten, and delivered to Pontius. Pilate, the gover- 
nor. (Mark. 14: 62.) 

Calm amid most false and fierce Jewish denunciations, 
Pilate marvels, and then questions his prisoner, ^^Art thou 
the King of the Jews ? " " My kingdom is not of this world ; 
if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants 
fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is 
My kingdom not from hence. Again Pilate asks, " Art thou 
a king then? Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end 
was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I 
should bear witness unto the truth." (John 18 : 36, 37.) 

The soldiers of Herod have mocked the Son of Man. 
Pilate has presented Him to the frenzied Jewish mob; and 
now the betrayed, falsely accused, and falsely condemned 
Sufferer hangs upon the cross. But above His bowed head, 
in Hebrew, and Latin, and Greek, is written His name and 
His office : " This is Jesus of ^Nazareth, the King of the 
Jews." And these words of man's intended mockery, pro- 
claim God's eternal truth. The crucified is the King of 
the Jews, the King of the Gentiles, the only Universal King 
the world has ever known. 

The Teachingof the Cross, is the culmination of the teach- 
ing of His perfect life. The cross condenses into one supreme 
act the human shame, the heavenly love, and the divine glory 



THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 141 

of His entire ministry. It stands to-day, as it has stood 
through all the centuries, His heart's interpretation of His own 
sublime paradox, " He that loseth his life shall find it." 

The shame of the cross came from man. His enemies 
were eye-witnesses of His power. They had seen Him give 
life to the dead. They knew that one able to give life was 
able to destroy life. They knew also that He who possessed 
this mighty power has used it only to restore. His character 
made it impossible for Him to be, a destroyer. It is the 
supreme shame of the Jewish priesthood that it heaped its 
insults and mockeries upon one who was too loving to treat 
them as they deserved. 

His enemies planned to destroy His life and bury His 
teaching in everlasting contempt. They did their worst, and 
their worst exalted Him. Against the background of their 
shame, shines more brightly the glory of perfect Love. 
Their words of mockery were (by His perfect life), trans- 
formed to w-ords of honor and praise. The Chief Priests 
mockingly said, " He saved others, Himself he cannot save." 
Their words are true. He fed others, Himself He could 
not feed. He healed others, His own wounds He could not 
heal. He rescued others from suffering, but not Himself. 
He saved others from death, Himself He could not save. 
Why? Because His life and strength were consecrated to 
His Father's glory and His brother's good. His great love 
could not be spent upon Himself. 

The Love of the cross is the love of God. He that hath 
seen the Son hath seen the Father. He that hath seen the 
love of the Crucified hath seen the heart of the Father. The 
lodestone of the cross is not its suffering, but that which un- 
derlies the suffering, — prompted it, and sanctifies it, — the love 
of Him who gladly gave His life for others. 



142 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

" Father, forgive them." He cannot change the hearts of 
His murderers, but He can forgive them, pray for them, and 
love them. '^ To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.'^ 
This is Love's answer to the heart of the malefactor, whose 
eye of faith (even amid earthly defeat and death) was able 
to see the King in His Kingdom. " Woman, behold thy 
Son." Life's supreme tie is not the kinship of blood, but 
kinship of love in Christ. Yet when blood and faith and 
love are one, how tenderly He teaches that the kinship of 
earth becomes the kinship of Heaven. " It is finished." The 
Father's will is fulfilled. The Son's work is done, the sacri- 
fice of love is complete. " Father, into Thy hands I commend 
my spirit." 

The Resurrection Itself is the most profound object les- 
son in all history. Christ's return to life was only a part 
of His resurrection. The resurrection body possessed powers 
which enabled Him to reveal Himself to His own, and not 
to the world. He no longer belongs to the earth. His body 
is not bound by the limitations of time or place, nearness or 
distance. The sealed stone cannot confine Him to the grave, 
nor the locked door bar Him from His assembled disciples. 
His body is superior to physical ill or injury. It is a body 
seen, heard and touched by those to whom He ministers ; yet 
(if He so will), one that eludes mortal touch and vanishes 
into thinnest air. It is a body that has triumphed over 
death, over every limitation of earth and flesh. It is no 
longer the body of Llis humiliation, but of His resurrection. 

The Apostles were men of flesh and blood. They knew the 
human nature of their Master far better than His divine 
nature. The divine powers of His resurrection body 
frightened them. He seemed an unreal being. It was the 
identity of His character ; the identity of His love, the identity 



THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 143 

of His friendship, tenderness, and teaching, which stilled their 
fears and restored their sadly shattered faith. 

As a dear teacher of our own in the midst of his instruc- 
tions is called from our presence, yet soon returns and con- 
tinues his instruction, so the divine Master stops His teaching 
and goes out to endure His cross. Yet on His return from 
the grave He takes up the spiritual lesson at the very point 
where He was interrupted by death, and continues His in- 
struction. His beloved pupils hear again the same devout 
truths, the same loving appeals to humility and obedience, 
the same affectionate reproofs, and the same tender en- 
treaties which they had learned to love during the days of 
His humiliation; and they are to the Apostles the strongest 
possible assurance of the personal identity of their beloved 
Master. 

His Words After Death are built upon His words before 
death. They are full of the same divine wisdom, the same 
personal tenderness. " Mary ? " It was a single word ; yet it 
was more than enough. Its familiar intonation, its tone of 
entreaty for recognition, its message of love, assures the 
weeping Mary that the Speaker is in very truth her risen 
Saviour. 

" O foolish ones, and slow-hearted to believe ! " Behoved 
it not the Christ to suffer ? And they who walked the 
path to Emmaus beside the Speaker, eagerly listened to His 
wonderful interpretation of old and familiar prophecies un- 
til their hearts, catching His divine fire, burned within them, 
as they had burned in happier days. Yet unbelief blinded 
their eyes. They knew Him not until (the evening meal 
about to begin) they see> with startled vision, their wonder- 
ful Teacher lifting His eyes to heaven and breaking their 
bread. They know Him! But (His lesson taught) He al- 



144 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

ready has vanished; and the blessed bread lies broken before 
His empty place. 

" Peace be unto you." But His words bring fear, not 
peace, to the spirit-broken disciples, secretly assembled be- 
hind locked doors. JSTot until they hear His lips speaking in 
old and familiar tones, not until He (adtapting Himself to 
their shattered faith) offered to their eyes His wounded 
hands and feet, does fear give place to gladness. Yet for 
very joy they believed not until He had eaten before them. 
Could Apostolic doubt go further than this? Yes, in the 
mind of Thomas. Yet from this greatest doubter came the 
greatest confession. " My Lord, and my God ! " But the 
Saviour pronounces a greater benediction, " Blessed are they 
that have not seen, and yet have believed." 

" Simon, son of Jonas, loveth thou me ? " Feed My 
lambs." " Feed My sheep." " Feed My sheep." It was to 
the threefold denier that the risen Lord gave this threefold 
charge. And note, that He who had overruled Apostolic pro- 
test, and taken little children up in His arms and blessed 
them, — ^He it is who gives the first 'place to the shepherding 
of the lambs of His Kingdom. Does this mean nothing? 

The Great Forty Days. '' Being seen of the Apostles 
forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the King- 
dom of God. (Acts 1: 2, 3.) So Saint Luke sums up the 
whole teaching of this wonderful period. The main reason 
for the brevity of the record is undoubtedly due to one fact. 
Christ's post-resurrection ministry was for His Disciples 
only. He had no additional truth to give to the world; that 
must come from the Holy Spirit. 

The record of Christ's teaching, " pertaining to the King- 
dom of God," is as follows : " Peace be unto you ; as my 
Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had 



THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 146 

said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive 
ye the Holy Ghost : Whosoever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them: and whosesoever sins ye retain, they 
are retained.'' (John 20:23.) ^^ All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (:M:att. 28 : 18, 19.) 

" Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, 
and to rise from the dead the third day; that repentance 
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among 
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses 
of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of My Father 
upon you : but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be 
endued with power from on high.'' (Luke 24:46-49.) 
Compare Matthew IS : IS. 

The quotation of these words of our Lord reminds us that 
man's conflicting interpretations of them have done much to 
perpetuate the unchristian divisions of Christendom. How 
then can any interpretation that I may offer help to quiet 
the strife of tongues i I shall not attempt to interpret them. 
I shall only call the attention of every sincere student to the 
Master's principles of interpretation without the guidance of 
which no interpretation can be free from error. 

The meaning of these words is determined by the historical 
conditions under which they were uttered. It matters not 
what their '^ face value " may be to you, or to me ; the real 
question is, What did they mean to the men to whom Christ 
spoke. To them they conveyed a definite message. The 
meaning of His words may trouble us, they aroused no ques- 
tioning among the Apostles. Doubtless His words have a 
larger meaning to-day than when they were uttered, but it 
cannot be one which contradicts their first meaning. 



146 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

We must remember that the Apostles were not educated in 
the Christian Church. It did not exist until Pentecost. The 
men to whom Christ spoke had been from childhood mem- 
bers of the Jewish Church of God. Did that Church 
have authority to forgive and retain sins, to bind and to 
loose ? If so, then the Lord's words conveyed to the Apostles 
not a new truth, but a new spiritual authority. 

So also the Lord's command to baptize conveyed to them 
not a new religious truth, but a new spiritual authority. 
They had already been baptized with water, and had, by 
Christ's direction, baptized others with water. Moreover, 
their first Master (John Baptist) had taught them that water- 
baptism only prepared the way for the higher baptism of the 
Holy Ghost. 

As the Apostles, without questioning, had interpreted 
their Master's commands concerning both the l^ew Baptism 
of the Holy Spirit, and the new Passover of the Kingdom 
hy their experience as members of the ancient Church of 
God, so also (as the Lord said nothing about it, and they had 
no other experience), they necessarily took it for granted 
that the New Baptism, in its relation to water, would fol- 
low the old form and mode with which they were familiar. 
And, for the same reasons, they also took it for granted that 
membership in the New Covenant and the New Passover of 
the Kingdom would be open to all such persons as were ad- 
mitted to God's Old Covenant and Passover. 

Therefore, if we are in doubt as to the meaning of the 
final commands of our Lord, our only path to certainty is 
perfect loyalty to the Master's principle of historic inter- 
pretation. We cannot grasp the true meaning of Christ's 
words unless we understand the Old Covenant sufficiently to 
know what were the ruling ideas and ideals which shaped the 
thoughts of His Hebrew hearers, — no others were present. 



THE PERIOD OF THE PASSION. 147 

<< Things Pertaining to The Kingdom of God,'* what are 
they? We know that for forty days the Saviour remained 
on the earth to teach them, but (except for a few momentous 
days) where is the record of His words? The basic prin- 
ciple of all our studies is that the words and the deeds of 
Christ are inseparable. Under different forms they are the 
expression of one divine Life. His words prepare for His 
deeds. In His deeds we find the interpretation of His words. 
So also the words of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit 
are one. In the worh of the Holy Spirit, we see recorded 
the teaclimg of the Divine Son. 

The subject of our Lord's last instruction before His death 
was the Holy Spirit, His office and work. The Holy Spirit 
is to take the Master's place in the lives of the Twelve. He 
will bear witness to Christ, and glorify Christ. He will dwell 
in them and instruct them. He will bring all things to their 
remembrance. He will guide them into all truth. These 
promises were fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, and in the 
years that followed it. The record is found in the book we 
call " The Acts of the Apostles," but which is (on its divine 
side) the Acts of the Holy Spirit. 

What Christ taught in the forty days the Holy Spirit 
put into deeds. In the life of the Apostolic Church, in its 
oneness of aim, its unity and harmony of action, we have 
a vivid picture of the essentials of what Christ taught 
during the great forty days. Could any verbal statement of 
Christ's teaching equal the living record of the Holy Spirit? 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

What is our fundamental principle of interpretation? See Chap. II. 
Christ's words reveal His Person and power : What do His deeds reveal ? 
Is there any essential difference between superhuman teaching and super- 
human doing ? Did Christ make any claim for His divine words that He did 



148 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

not make for His deeds ? John 5: 36 ; 10: 37. Did Christ ever separate his 
miracles from His instructions ? Did He use miracles as a means of teach- 
ing ? Matt. 16 : 8-10. Carefully study Mark 3 : 1-13 as a lesson in object 
teaching. Did Christ utter parables privately to His disciples ? Were 
the following miracles done publicly or privately ? Luke 5:1-11; Mark 
4:35-41; Luke 9: 28-36. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
MIRACLES AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD. 

We know that our Lord's life, and our Lord's words are 
the natural expression of one perfect personality. We have 
learned to interpret His words by His life. We are satisfied 
that following this principle has helped us to discover the 
truth. We have reached that point in our study where the 
idea of separating His words from His life, and interpreting 
them as though they were not the natural expression of that 
life, is simply unthinkable. 

But can we limit this basic principle of interpretation to 
our Lord's words ? If His words are the perfectly natural 
expression of His personality, are not His deeds the same? 
If we separate our Lord's works from His personality, and 
interpret them as though they were not the natural, and in- 
evitable expression of that personality, are we not as unrea- 
sonable as though we treated His words in the same way? 
Yet there are some who accept the superhuman words of 
Christ, and then stumble at His superhuman deeds. But 
both are a part of Himself. Both manifest, by different 
methods, the same spiritual power, the same divine person- 
ality. It would be just as reasonable to separate Christ's 
parables concerning the future life from all other parables, 
and reject them because they are the expression of a divine 
knowledge, as it is to reject certain works of Christ because 
they are the expression of a divine power. 

149 



150 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

The Perfect Unity of the Master's Words and Works. 

The parables and miracles are the expression of that one will 
of God which the Son came to fulfil. This is the Son's own 
claim. " The words I speak nnto you are not mine, but His 
that sent me," and again, " The works which the Father 
hath given me to finish, bear witness of me." " If I do 
not the work of my Father, believe me not." (John 5: 36; 
10:37.) His miraculous works, as truly as His verbal in- 
structions, are a part of His educational activity. He uses 
them for the instruction of those He healed and still more 
frequently for the private training of the Twelve. For ex- 
ample, when Christ faced 5,000 hungry men in the desert, 
He said to Philip and Andrew, " Whence shall we buy 
bread ? " " He Himself knew what He would do." Why then 
did He question ? To turn their attention from the miracle to 
its teaching. Later when the disciples find themselves in a 
desert place without bread, they, anxious about their food, fail 
to understand the Master's teaching. What is His rebuke? 
" O ye of little faith ! Do ye not remember the five loaves of 
the Rve thousand, * * * neither the seven loaves of the four 
thousand ? " (Matt. 16 : 8-10.) Clearly "in the mind of the 
Master the two miracles were intended to be educational, an 
important part of their training. 

At the very " beginning of miracles " our attention is 
called to the instructive purpose of Christ's " works." It is 
the educational side of the miracle that St. John emphasizes. 
Christ manifested His glory, and " His disciples believed on 
Him." What is true of the teaching power of this miracle is 
true of all ; their spiritual discipline is never absent, in many 
was never absent, in many cases this was their principal pur- 
pose. 



MIRACLES AS A2s EDUCATIONAL iVIETHOD. 151 

Our Sixth Principle of Interpretation is, " All inspired 
statements must be interpreted historically: the meaning of 
doubtful words is determined by the conditions under which 
they were uttered." This principle applies to Christ's ivoi'l's 
as certainly as it does to His teaching. To ignore the cir- 
cumstances under which Christ did a divine work, or the 
conditions which brought it forth, is to misinterpret it. To 
make no distinction between a miracle done in private for 
the training of a single disciple, and another done in public 
for the benefit of thousands, is certainly an invitation to 
false conclusions. It will help us to understand Christ's 
educational use of miracles if we consider them as, (a) Pub- 
lic miracles, (b) Public miracles with individual instruc- 
tion, and (c) Private miracles for private instruction. 

The Public Miracles of Christ outnumber all others. 
They are a revelation of Jesus as the expected ]5tlessiah. The 
common people recognized their Messianic significance. Be- 
lievers asked, Is not this the Christ ? " When Christ cometh 
will He do more miracles than these ? " Christ again, and 
again called attention to the teaching of His Messianic works. 
On two notable occasions He taught the inseparable connec- 
tion between the works of the Messiah and the Person of the 
Messiah; namely, in the Synagogue at l^azareth and in His 
answer to the doubt of the imprisoned Baptist. 

To every true Israelite, the Messiah was to be the 
Restorer. He would restore sight to the blind, hearing to the 
deaf, health to the diseased, and life to the dead. Jesus did 
these works before the eyes of John's disciples. They re- 
ported to their Master what they had themselves seen and 
heard. To him their words were a vivid portrait of the 
Messiah from the scroll of Isaiah. It dispelled every doubt. 
In the Synagogue at Xazareth Jesus' application of this 



152 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

same page of Isaiah to His own words and works aroused 
unbelief, hatred, and attempted murder. Alike to the devout 
Jew and the disbelieving Jew, the words, the works, the mis- 
sion, and the Person of Jesus were inseparable. 

The miracles of Christ taught the same truths of the King- 
dom which He emphasized by word of mouth; and taught 
them with a dramatic power, and a vividness of action 
which no verbal statement could equal. To the learned and 
righteous I^icodemus, to the unlearned and sinful Samaritan, 
and to His own hot-headed neighbors at E'azareth, Christ 
taught the surprising truth that the blessing of the Messiah 
were not for one nation, but for all people. Did He not 
teach the same truth and even more effectively, when He 
miraculously healed and blessed that Samaritan leper, re- 
stored to sanity the daughter of the woman of Sidon, and 
fed four thousand of her heathen neighbors ? Our Lord 
never spoke more Godlike words than these, " Love your 
enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that 
curse you, and pray for them which de^itefully use you." 
(Luke 6: 27, 28.) Yet was not this same lesson still more 
indelibly written upon the hearts of His disciples when, in 
Gethsemane, surrounded by those who were about to slay 
Him, they saw their Master restore the slashed ear of an 
assistant murderer ? 

Public Miracles with Individual Instruction were almost 
a daily occurrance in Christ^s ministry of mercy. 'Never is 
there to be found a miracle that did not teach the lesson of 
human faith, and divine love. The Son was ever ready to 
do for man what man could not do for himself. But the 
blessing Christ waited to give was conditioned by man's de- 
sire, man's faith, man's obedience. That all men must be 
co-workers with God, in sickness and in health, was the truth 



MIRACLES AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD. 153 

taught by every miracle of the Master, taught under circum- 
stances which to the pupil made the lesson unforgetable. 

In the training-school of miracle, as in the preparatory- 
school of parable, there was no demand for human perfection. 
Man's act of faith, of will, of obedience registered varying 
degrees of imperfection. The diseased and shrinking woman 
said, — I will hide myself in the crowd which throngs Him. 
I will secretly touch the hem of His garment ; its virtue and 
holiness will heal mine infirmity. But although Christ 
willed that His life should meet her touch and heal her body. 
He would not allow her soul to be weakened by the super- 
stitious idea that she had been restored by a garment and not 
by His own merciful will. Therefore, she is detained, in- 
structed and joyfully departs with a purer faith. Did the 
disciples learn their lesson as perfectly as the patient suf- 
ferer ? (Compare Mark 5:24-34 with Matt. 15:21-28.) 

The miracle of the healing the paralytic (Mark 2: 1-12) 
is a fourfold object lesson, an instruction in social, individ- 
ual, doctrinal, and Messianic truth. The neighborly act of 
the four men who brought the invalid; their persistent faith 
which overcame every difficulty, was divinely noted and made 
the foundation of Christ's action. Tbey, however, could 
do only their social duty, bring their friend to the Master's 
feet. They could not heal, nor give their friend that faith 
which he must have before he could be healed. But the 
greater miracle-lesson preceded the lesser. Christ's mercy 
surpassed all expectation. He healed the paralytic's soul. He 
gave him what he needed most of all, yet dared not ask. 
" Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." 

Christ's words are an astonishment to the Galileans; a 
challenge to the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law. ^^ Wlio 
can forgive sins but God alone ? " It is a doctrinal ques- 



154 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OP CHRIST. 

tion; a question of divine truth or human blasphemy. And 
as we often use a material object to teach a moral truth, so 
Christ uses the physical miracle to prove the spiritual 
miracle — His power and authority to forgive sins. A man who 
knows in his heart that his sins are forgiven, is made the glad 
possessor of a saving faith. Son, " Arise, take up thy bed and 
go thy house.'' And the instant obedience of him who was 
helpless completed, confirmed and clinched, the teaching of 
this living parable. (Mark 2: 1-12.) 

Private Miracles are an educational method used only in 
one sphere of Christ's activity, His personal training of the 
Twelve. We noted in Christ's verbal instruction that while 
most of His parables were addressed to the multitude, yet a 
goodly number were plainly uttered for special hearers. 
(Matt. 21 : 28, 21 : 33, 22 : 1.) Again others were addressed 
to His disciples only, or were followed by private interpreta- 
tion, personal teaching, or individual application which made 
them private instructions. The same method which the Mas- 
ter followed in teaching by parables, He followed in teaching 
by miracles. 

When we study the private miracles of the Master, and 
put ourselves back into the conditions under which they were 
wrought, we are impressed, first of all, by their perfect 
naturalness, fitness, and adaptation to teaching. And yet 
these, most natural lessons of the Divine Teacher, have be- 
come stumbling-blocks to those who ignore their educational 
purpose, and the historical conditions under which they oc- 
curred. This class of miracles is strictly limited (a) to the 
education of the disciples, and (b) almost wholly limited to 
the schooling of the fisherman-disciples, and to the sphere of 
their early labors, the lake, the nets, and the fishing-boats. 
Moreover, within this smaller group of training-miracles for 



MIRACLES AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD. 155 

fishermen only, there is a still smaller group devoted to the 
training of one man, the great-hearted, loving, blundering ir- 
repressible Simon Peter. 

Private Miracles for Private Instruction. So far as the 
record goes, the training of Simon began the private miracles, 
and the winning of Peter ended them. Every good workman 
knows his own trade better than an outsider. The thing 
which Simon the fisher knew best of all, was when to fish^ 
where to fish, and how to fish. When a landsman stepped 
into Simon's boat in broad daylight and said, " Put out into 
the deep, and let down your nets," Simon, although he be- 
lieved the speaker to be the Messiah, could not keep back 
the fisherman's protest, ^^ We have toiled all the night and 
taken nothing." But when the amazed fisherman saw his boat 
filled and almost sinking with its overload of fish, he threw 
himself at the feet of Jesus, exclaiming, " Depart from me, for 
I am a sinful man, Lord ! " Is there anything here save 
the simple lesson of Christ's superior wisdom in the one 
sphere where Simon had the most experience and the most 
confidence ? Could any other educational method so quickly 
have made Simon a pupil in that school where catchers-of-fish 
were being taught to become catchers-of-men ? (Luke 5 : 1- 

11-) 

Later the Twelve were taught the same lesson which Christ 
had given Simon. But the conditions were even more im- 
pressive. (Mark 4:35-41.) The pupils, hardy fishermen, 
are thoroughly familiar with the lake in all of its moods. 
But they are overtaken by a storm more than severe. The 
waves are filling the boat, the Master is asleep. They 
awaken Him with the cry, ^^ Master, carest thou not that we 
perish ? " He arose, rebuked the wind, and there was a great 
calm. And He said unto them, " How is it that ye have 



156 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

no faith ? " The miraculous training accomplishes its purpose. 
The Twelve have a new faith ; yes, and a new awe. For thej 
said one to another, " Who is this, that even the wind and the 
sea obey Him ? '' From that hour the Messiah began to appear 
to them like unto the Strong Son of God. 

It was immediately after Christ had fed the ^yq thousand, 
hurried his disciples away from political contagion, and 
thwarted the intention of the excited multitude to make Him 
a political king, that He instructed the Twelve by another 
miraculous object lesson. (Matt. 14:24-33.) The fisher- 
men are in the midst of the lake, struggling against con- 
trary wind and waves, when in the dimness before dawn, they 
are startled by seeing a phantom walking on the waves to- 
wards their boat. Some of them cry out in terror, but across 
the angry waves comes the word, " Be of good cheer, it is I, 
be not afraid.'' 

They had failed to learn the spiritual lesson of the 
loaves and fishes. (Mark 6: 52.) It looks as if they had 
sympathized with the Galileans political plans. But alone in 
the storm and darkness, they were taught that the power of 
their Messiah was not human but superhuman, l^ot that of 
a political leader, but of a Spiritual King. Was not the les- 
son taught the fishermen in the boat the same lesson which on 
the next day Christ taught the political multitude who also 
had eaten of His loaves and fishes ? Was there any difference 
between these two instructions on the nature and mission of 
the King except in the method? 

The miraculous lesson given to the boat-load of faithful 
yet fearful disciples was followed by a still more striking 
act of individual training. With that impetuosity which is 
so characteristic of the man, Simon Peter recognizing the 
voice of His Lord, ;forgets his spectral fears and bounds to 



MIRACLES AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD. 157 

the extreme of self-confidence and rashness, " Lord, if it be 
thou, bid me come unto thee upon the water." The Master 
answers, " Come." And the daring disciple actually walks 
a few steps on the water, but alas, his confidence in his own 
faith is stronger than his confidence in His Lord. He 
turns his eyes from Christ to the storm tossed waves, and be- 
gins to sink. The Master seizes Simon's outstretched hands 
with the rebuke, " O thou of little faith, why didst thou 
doubt ? " Would the rash sailor ever forget his lesson ? 

The Transfiguration, the greatest miracle in the life of 
Christ before His resurrection, is a private miracle. (Luke 
9:28-36.) It occurred far away from the public gaze; it 
was seen only by Simon Peter, James and John. It was a 
marvellous object lesson in which the Son of God was the 
transfigured and glorified Object, and His heavenly Father 
was the Teacher. And what was its teaching ? It was a reve- 
lation of the divine nature of their Master, a lesson of His true 
relation to God which they were just beginning to realize. 
And St. Peter filled to overflowing with the spiritual splendor 
of his vision, proposed a permanent camp upon the mountain 
top, " I^ot knowing what he said." 

The Transfiguration, however, is more than a silent lesson. 
As the voice of the Father broke the solemn silence of His 
Son's baptism, so now it is heard amid His Son's heavenly 
glory. To the prostrate disciples, and especially to him who 
had dared to speak in this Holy of Holies, came the rebuk- 
ing voice of God, " This is my beloved Son, Jiear ye Him." 
Do you recall what had immediately preceded the Trans- 
figuration? Simon hearing his Master speak of His ap- 
proaching death, took it upon himself to reprove the Christ. 
Simon's irreverence well merited the stern rebuke, " Get thee 
behind me, satan." To the disciples Christ said, ^^ Whosoever 
shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son 



158 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

of Man be ashamed, when he shall come in His glory." 
(Luke 9 : 26.) It was only a week later that Simon (and his 
companions) heard the words, ^^ This is My beloved Son, 
hear ye Him ! " Think yon that even Simon conld forget 
God's schooling? 

The miracle of the shekel in the fish's month (Matt. 17: 
24-27), is another part of the private instruction of Simon 
Peter. It was an individual lesson. Probably even the other 
disciples would never have known of it if honest Peter had not 
confessed his blunder, and the method of His Master's rebuke. 
The would-be leader of the Twelve had taken upon himself 
to answer a question which Christ Himself had not answered, 
namely, what is the relation of the E'ew Kingdom to the He- 
brew Church. His thoughtless answer, " Yes," my Master 
pays taxes to the Temple, had placed the ISTew Kingdom, and 
its Divine King below, and therefore under the authority of 
the Rulers of the Temple. It was a great blunder, it deserved 
a great rebuke, and Simon received it the very moment he 
entered the Master's presence. 

Simon had made himself the leader and spokesman for 
the Twelve and their Master. The Master puts him below 
all the others. He closes the Apostolic purse against Simon 
and his self-assumed tax. He sends him back to his old call- 
ing, back to find his old hook and line, and (like any com- 
mon fisherman) earn the tax which he, without authority, 
had saddled upon his Master. Would not every step Simon 
took rub in the Master's lesson? Think you he would ever 
again pull in a fish without remembering the one that came 
up with the rebuking double drachma in his mouth ? 

The withering of the fig tree at the word of Christ (Matt. 
21: 18-22), was a private miracle, and a striking object les- 
son in faith. It is the only miraculous instruction which is 



MIRACLES AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD. 159 

based on destruction, although that element is frequently 
found in Christ's parabolic teaching. A close parallel is 
found in the parable of the smitten fig tree (Luke 13: 6-9). 
But the lesson there has a different application. 

We do not always remember that the forty days which our 
Lord spent on the earth after His resurrection were (a) not a 
part of His public ministry ; were (b) wholly devoted to the 
private training of His disciples; and that (c) the relation 
of the risen Christ to earthly things was so changed as to 
make the whole period one perpetual miracle; also (d) that 
Christ devoted this whole period to instructing His disciples 
" in the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." 

It is perfectly natural that under these exceptional con- 
ditions the miraculous method of instruction should (for the 
time being) become the normal method; i. e., a method which 
perfectly conformed to the conditions under which Christ 
was living on the earth. The resurrection angel rolled the 
rock from the door of the sepulchre, not that Christ might 
rise, but that His disciples might see that He had already 
risen. And it was on this fact that the Angel based his in- 
struction to the faithful women, " Eear not," " He is 
risen. * * * Come, see the place where the Lord lay." 
(Matt. 28:6.) 

Did Christ ever give a more vivid and abiding instruction 
than the one He gave to the two disciples on the way to 
Emmaus? (Luke 24: 13-35.) And when the action ended 
with the blessing and breaking of the bread, the disciples sud- 
denly found themselves gazing with beating hearts at a broken 
loaf and an empty chair, was not their training completed and 
its lesson already learned ? 

When Christ at the close of the first day of the week 
(Luke 24: 36-43), passed through the closed and locked door 



160 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

of the upper room, and appeared in the midst of His doubt- 
ing and terrified disciples, He evidently used this miraculous 
method of entrance for the same reason that, a few minutes 
later, He said, " Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts 
arise in your hearts ? Behold My hands and My feet, that it 
is I Myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see Me have. And when He had thus spoken, He 
showed them His hands and His feet." (Luke 24: 38-40.) 

And with the object lesson of the risen Saviour standing 
before them, could they fail to realize the wonderful fact that 
He had indeed risen from the dead. So when, under the 
same conditions, He again appeared in the same place, it is 
for the disciplining of one lonesome doubter. " Thomas, 
reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach 
hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side : and be not faith- 
less, but believing." (John 20: 27.) But the personal pres- 
ence of the Risen Christ is enough. Thomas lifted not hand 
but voice, " My Lord and my God ! " 

While this marvelous period of instruction filled forty days 
its record covers only those first days during which the dis- 
ciples were struggling to recover their mental balance after 
the shock of the crucifixion, and the rebound of the resurrec- 
tion. St. Peter could not keep quiet under the strain of the 
situation. He felt that if he could get out on the lake, in his 
old fishing-boat, then he might find himself again. Suddenly 
he exclaimed, " I go a fishing." His old partners join him. 
As often before, they toil all night and catch nothing. As in 
other days, a voice comes across the water, Cast on the right 
and you shall find. As in other days, the net is filled to over- 
flowing. But the impetuous Peter has already thrown him- 
self into the water to reach the feet of Him who stands on 
the shore beside a fire of coals, of cooking fish, and waiting 



MIRACLES AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHOD. 161 

loaves. But not until tiie Eisen Lord had fed tie penitent, 
did He discipline, and restore liim. Eecalling the circum- 
stances, think YOU it was possible for St. Peter to forget the 
lesson he was taught, as he stood surrounded by his panners 
and the implements of his old calling? (John 21: 1-17.) 

It must needs be that Christ should return to the Father. 
Was it necessary that it should be with a visible body? 
Christ must ascend, but was it necessary that there should be 
witnesses? Or if there were witnesses, was it necessary to 
limit them to His own disciples ? Yes, in every case ; for 
only under these particular circumstances cotild the manifold 
unity of Christ's life, and the perfect harmony of Christ's 
teaching, be completed. To Him the tempter had said, " Cast 
thyself down," from the pinnacle of the Temple. To His 
faithful followers Christ said. " I will ascend to ^y 
Father and your Father." Satan desired a spectacular de- 
scent that would startle the world. That Christ might con- 
firm the faith of those who followed Him (even after death), 
Christ privately appeared to them in bodily form, privately 
led them to a secluded place of prayer, and while He stood 
over them in blessing, He ascended to His Father, and their 
Father. "VTas it possible for the schooling of the disciples 
to close with a more abiding and inspiring lesson? (Luke 
24:50-53.) 

CONSTRUCTIVE STITDIES. 

The chapter follo^iviiig is an application of Christ's basic truths to some of 
the moral difficulties and spiritual problems of revelarion and life. Turn 
back to chapter in and carefully re-read it, not as one seeking again the 
principles of Biblical interpretation ; but as one humbly seeking to under- 
stand some of the providential principles underiying God's moral govern- 
ment. As you read, ask yourself such questions as — If all truths are not 
equally important, on which ones would Christ be silent ? Did He att-empt 
to reveal all truth ? Did He intend to do so ? The Old Covenant has many 
silences, has the New, none ? 



CHAPTEE XIV. 
THE TEACHING OF DIVINE SILENCE. 

The words of the Master are divine. Must not His 
silences be the same? The light floods the sun-dial, yet to 
its silent shadows we turn for information. If we study., them 
aright, the silences of Christ are vocal with instruction, more 
so than any spoken words of man. The sorrow is that many 
do not think of studying the silences of Christ. Many ap- 
proach the Divine Speaker as though they stood on His level, 
and were entitled to know everything that He knows. Does 
the King proclaim to his subjects all the affairs of his king- 
dom ? Does the General explain to private soldiers his plan 
of battle? 

Because the words of the Son of Man are a revelation of 
divine love, we rightly expect that wherever there is spiritual 
need, there will be spiritual information. Should we not 
also expect a divine silence when it is for man's good ? What 
the true heart hungers for is " the certainty of truth," a 
definite vision of duty, the will to follow in loving confidence 
the footsteps of the Son of Man. 

The Silence of Divine Certainty is the most enlightening 
and inspiring of the silences of the Son of Man. A person 
who is constantly arguing for the hasic truths of Christianity, 
may believe them, yet he is not sure of them. One who is 
absolutely sure of the foundation truths of life, does not stop 
to argue about them, nor attempt to prove them. The pro- 
found silences of the Divine Teacher concern the basic truths 

162 



THE TEACHING OF DIVINE SILENCE. 163 

of religion; i. e., those first truths which must he in order 
that any truth whatsoever may be. For the Master the first 
and greatest truths of life were forever settled. 

Christ never uttered a word to prove the existence of God. 
It was impossible for Him to do so. His whole teaching is 
built upon His absolute certainty that God is His Father, 
and the Father of all who listen to His words. He takes 
it for granted that His hearers, having been created in 
God's image, and made partakers of His spiritual nature, are 
capable of knowing God; not intellectually, but intuitively, 
morally, and spiritually. Moreover, Our Lord unhesitatingly 
assumes the perfect goodness, and absolute holiness of God. 
With equal certainty He takes it for granted that man pos- 
sesses a fallen and sinful nature, that he needs God's forgive- 
ness, that he needs God's help in obtaining it, and that the 
Heavenly Father is willing and waiting to supply His chil- 
dren's every need. 

Moreover, the above teaching of Christ is based upon the 
unargued truth that in the possession of a like moral nature, 
the Holy Father and His sinful child, have a common meet- 
ing ground; a common understanding of good and evil, of 
right and wrong, of holiness and wickedness, and that man 
is free to choose the one and reject the other. Christ's every 
appeal to man is based upon these unargued spiritual facts. 
And He appeals to the wayward and sinful not as an object 
of divine hate, but of divine love. He silently affirms the 
essential truthfulness of the Hebrew Prophets idea of atone- 
ment, and announces that He has come to lay down His life 
for the salvation of the lost. 

As the Son of Man never attempts to prove man's origin, 
so He never argues about man's destiny. He silently accepts 
the spiritual fact that man's origin decides his destiny; that 



164 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

as man possesses moral freedom and an immortal nature his 
moral responsibility does not end with his earthly body, but 
is as limitless as his immortality. Moreover, Christ silently 
assumes that man is capable of living his present life well 
without a full revelation of the life of the world to come ; and 
that the spiritual certainty of an endless existence, and the 
spiritual certainty that man will in justice and mercy reap 
whatever he has sown, is all that man actually needs upon 
which to build for time and for eternity. 

The Silence that Approves or Permits pervades all the 
teaching of the Master. It is a silence which the careless 
reader usually fails to notice; or, because he is ignorant of 
the historic conditions under which Christ remained silent, 
he utterly misinterprets it. Too often his theory is, Christ 
did not sanction this custom or conduct, therefore He con- 
demns it. 

He is indeed a careless student who fails to realize that 
the Master lived and taught in an age of religious error, and 
among a people debased by false teachers. 'No prophet was 
so fearless in rebuking sin as Jesus of N"azareth. I^o moral 
or religious error came under His eye and escaped His re- 
buke; no false teacher ever entered His presence without 
receiving His unmistakable condemnation. But to make the 
Master's words and the Master's silences both mean condem- 
nation, would require a complete reversal of the actual his- 
toric conditions under which He taught. There are, however, 
thousands of matters belonging to man's daily life which the 
Master neither sanctioned nor condemned. They are too petty 
to come within the range of divine teaching. They belong to 
the realm of conscience, and common sense. They are a part 
of man's moral freedom for which he must give an account ; 
or they are fully covered by those great spiritual principles 



THE TEACHING OF DIVINE SILENCE. 165 

of life, which form the larger part of the Master's teaching. 

Christ came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets. This 
truth is central in all His words and deeds. Yet the very 
fact that the Old Testament needed fulfilment proved its 
incompleteness. With deepest reverence for the ancient 
revelation, the Son does not hesitate to teach that it is incom- 
plete both in moral standards, and spiritual revelation. He 
condemned the old law of revenge. He measured by a higher 
standard the old precepts relating to divorce and adultery. 
His measure of righteousness was not the letter of the Law, 
nor the righteousness of deeds alone, but the inward righteous- 
ness of the heart. 

Yet of the larger portion of the ancient revelation, its 
history, law, and prophecy, Christ said nothing. Did He con- 
demn all the ancient Scripture which He failed to approve ? 
Did He approve all which He failed to condemn ? Or, what 
is more vital, did His silence find its full voice in the perfect 
moral standards, and final spiritual revelation of His own 
words and life ! 

The Silence that Gives Moral Freedom. We cannot ap- 
proach our Lord's words in humility without realizing that 
by far the larger portion of them are devoted to teaching not 
the rules, but the principles of life in His Kingdom. Prin- 
ciples are perpetual and universal; rules are temporary and 
local. Principles are vital, they apply to all persons, all 
cases, and all conditions; rules are for particular persons, 
certain classes, or special conditions. Loyalty to principle is 
the freedom of the mature mind. The observance of rules is 
the safety of childhood. 

Yet there are persons of mature years who fault the teach- 
ing of Christ because He refuses to treat them like children, 
because He is silent concerning minute rules and precepts for 



166 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

the regulation of daily conduct. They seem to think that 
the silences of the Gospel are imperfections, and that the 
Master's teaching should have followed the lines of the book 
of Leviticus, or the Proverbs of Soloman. They desire not 
the guidance of living principles, but a pocket dictionary of 
moral conduct. 

The aim of the Master's teaching is to produce a self- 
governing soul. His method is to plant in the heart of His 
hearers the changeless principles of His Kingdom. His 
silence as to rules of conduct is deliberate. It is in harmony 
with the whole body of His teaching. Principles are in- 
centives. They demand thought; they compel and reward 
study; and the reward is development in spiritual under- 
standing and growth in moral freedom. 

Yet a helpful Christian life without definite rules is an 
impossibility. But a man's rules must come from himself, 
not from another. They must be his own application of the 
principles which Christ has given him. The Christian man 
demands from his life perfect loyalty, not to the rules of 
other men, but to the principles of Jesus Christ, and he ac- 
cords to others that perfect freedom in Christ which he claims 
for himself. 

The Silence that Creates Hope. Beyond all men the 
Divine Teacher knew man. He knew man's strength, and his 
weakness. Knew man's healthy desire to understand what 
he ought to know, and man's morbid curiosity to discover 
whatever was concealed by the veil of silence. Because of 
His perfect knowledge the Master was deliberately silent con- 
cerning the things which man has always been the mos§ 
curious to know. 

The desire to pry into the future, to be assured of safety, 
or success, of fortune or misfortune, is an universal weakness. 



THE TEACHING OF DIVINE SILENCE. 167 

At the time of Christ, and long before it, divination was a 
chief factor in all man-made religions. 

** The curse is universal ; high and low 
Are mad alike the future hour to know." 

The words of the ancient heathen satirist are a picture of 
modern life. Religious impostors, seers, quacks, and cheats 
still find ready buyers for their widely advertised wares. The 
hidden mysteries of the books of Daniel and Revelation have 
more fascination for some Christians, than the simplest and 
tenderest teachings of the Gospels. The time of His second 
advent Christ refused to reveal. But the weakness and rash- 
ness of man has gone behind divine silence and again and 
again fixed the day and hour of the Lord's return. 

The Apostles were not free from the universal weakness. 
They glory in the greatness of the Temple. The Master an- 
swers, " Yerily I say unto you, There shall not be left one 
stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. " Later 
they privately say, " Tell us, when shall these things be ? and 
what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 
world ? " The Master's answer is a most solemn warning. 
(Study Matt. 24:4-51.) 

The silence of Christ is the expressed love of Christ. In 
every age of man the soul has found its highest inspiration in 
the certainty of faith, and the joy of hope. The certainty of 
possession is the destruction of enthusiasm, and the joy of 
effort. The certainty of failure, lingering disease or death 
(without the confidence of a certain faith) is driving thou- 
sands to despair. It is what a man believes and " hopes for " 
that nerves him to wrest victory from defeat. It is the Mas- 
ter's silences that create hope. It is the certainty that 
" Christ's concealing is Love's revealing " that inspires the 
Christian sufferer and the Christian worker. 



168 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

The Silence of Providential Care is one to wliicli the Mas- 
ter Himself calls our attention. The Son of Man is Him- 
self the expression of God's providential activity. Do you 
recall where He first manifested what man calls providential 
care? 'Not in the Temple of God, nor in the Capitol of 
Judea, but at a social gathering in an insignificant village. 
It was to save from shame an unknown bridegroom and his 
guests that the Son of Man first used the divine power of 
His providential office. The unknown director of the feast 
complimented the unnamed bridegroom on his wine, but 
neither he who complimented, nor he who was complimented 
knew the source of the gift. 

A few hours walk from Cana, a mother who had already 
buried her husband, is preparing to bury her only son. She 
had wept, and prayed, but no answer had come — except death. 
Doubtless God's providential care seemed a long way off; 
perhaps the mere echo of an hopeless cry. Yet between the 
city gate and the grave. One whom the weeping mother saw 
not and knew not, stopped the procession of death and re- 
stored to life and love the son that was dead. But that son 
must die again. Would it have been a less manifestation of 
providential care if the restoration had taken place at the gate 
of that city where there is no death ? 

The mother at the gate of !N"ain knew not the Christ nor 
His providential presence. The mother at the gate of Tyre 
knew Him and besought His help. His answer was — 
silence. Even the disciples wanted to grant her request and 
stop her cries. Yet, in the end, did the divine silence add 
to the mother's sorrow or the mother's blessing? If divine 
delay means a larger blessing here, would a longer silence 
have meant a smaller blessing hereafter ? 

In distant Perea the Son of Man received this message from 



THE TEACHING OF DIVINE SILENCE. 169 

Bethany, " He whom thou lovest is sick." Yet, Lazarus is 
allowed to die, and the sisters to remain in silence and sorrow. 
To-day we know why Jesus was silent and absent. But if 
we did not know, if the silence of a few days had become the 
silence of centuries, would it have changed the fact of God's 
providential care? Does the existence of God's loving care 
depend upon our understanding it ? 

" Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born 
blind ? " All his life had the beggar awaited in silence and 
darkness for an answer to that question. And the joy of 
Christ's answer came to his ears, the light of gladness came 
to his eyes, and the blessed vision of the Messiah came to his 
heart, all in one day. We know from Christ Himself, that 
the death of Lazarus, and the blindness of the beggar were 
" for the glory of God." But were their afflictions the only 
ones that are for God's glory ? Does the fact that we hnow 
why they suffered make their cases providentially different 
from those which are still covered by the veil of divine 
silence? Has any affliction ever fallen upon man that was 
not in the will of ike Father both for man's good and God's 
glory? A study of these Christ-interpreted cases will help 
us to understand like cases from which the Master has not 
lifted the curtain of silence. 

" Suppose ye that these Galileans (whose blood Pilate 
had mingled with their sacrifices) were sinners above all the 
Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, 
nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." 
(Luke 13 : 2, 3.) Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow 
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your 
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
they? Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, 
which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He 



170 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

not much more clothe you ? O ye of little faith ! " (Matt. 
6: 26-30.) " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father 
which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him ? " 
(Matt. Y: 11.) And remember that everything is "good" 
by which man is blessed, and God is glorified. And these two 
are one. Nothing is for God's glory that is not for man's 
eternal good. 

The Silence of That Trains. It is recorded of the holy 
child Jesus that " He increased in wisdom and stature." 
His body grew, and His mind developed like those of any 
other normal child. St. Paul also says, " When I was a child, 
I thought as a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a 
child." In other words, what the boy from Nazareth or the 
boy from Tarsus was able to receive or do physically, 
mentally, or spiritually was decided hy childhood's limita- 
tions. " But," adds St. Paul, " When I became a man I put 
away childish things." Henceforth, he was free from the 
limitations of childhood. But was he free from all limita- 
tions ? Was the freedom of his manhood limitless ? Did he 
possess any such power or freedom as Jesus of Nazareth pos- 
sessed when He reached manhood ? 

The limitations of adult years are just as fixed as those of 
childhood. We may forget this, but Christ is too wise and 
too loving to do so. He holds no man responsible for any- 
thing outside of his limitations. He condemns no man for 
not possessing or using a knowledge which he never received. 
For " He giveth " to every man according to his several 
ability. Human capacity to receive and use measures the 
gifts of Divine Love. 

We know that throughout the Old Testament there is a 
gradual revelation of God's purpose as man is able to bear it. 



THE TEACHING OP DIVINE SILENCE. 171 

Out of an eternal silence, God is seen and heard mainly in His 
works. Primitive man, a child in God's kindergarten, han- 
dles earthly objects made by the Creator and is gradually 
trained to think ^^ Creator ", hear his Creator, obey his Cre- 
ator, and dimly understand his Creator. In other words, all 
revelation is mercifully adapted to human limitations. 

" My Father worketh hitherto and I work." The method 
of the Eather is the method of the Son. " My time is not yet 
come " is the Master's all sufficient answer for His silences 
and His seeming inactivity. E'othing is spoken or done be- 
fore the time. All that is needful is revealed at the time. 
Warning His disciples of coming persecutions, the Master 
says, " But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or 
what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same 
hour what ye shall speak." (Matt. 10:19.) The perfect 
adaptation of revelation to human needs is the foundation 
of man's moral and spiritual training under both Covenants. 

Few men realize their own limitations, or even those com- 
mon to all humanity. We are constantly asking our Lord to 
give us more light, more responsibility, than we are prepared 
to receive. And such requests come not from the largeness 
of our knowledge, but from the largeness of our ignorance. 
Even some of the Apostles showed the same weakness, and 
what is more surprising, did so after three years in the 
training-school of Christ. 

The sons of Zebedee actually believed themselves fitted for 
the highest places in the Kingdom; they imagined that they 
had the capacity to receive the hidden things of God. (Mark 
11: 35.) Sadly the Master answers, " Ye know not what ye 
ask." To-day there are men who fault God's laws of physical 
government ; yes, men who are so ignorant as to imagine that 



172 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

ihej are capable of improving God's moral govermnent of the 
world I 

The silences of the Master are an essential part of man's 
moral training, they are always educational. It is our doing 
the Lord's will to-day that prepares us to understand to- 
morrow's words, or to-morrow's silences. It was at the end 
of His ministry that the Son of Man said to the eager and ex- 
pectant Apostles, " I have yet many things to say unto you, 
hut ye cannot bear them now." " What I do, thou knowest 
not now. But thou shalt know hereafter." Cannot we trust 
the silences of Love ? 

CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES. 

We have come to the final chapter. In one sense it is a review of the book, 
not as to its details, but in its relation to the supreme purpose for which 
Christ came to earth. Picture Christ at Cana, and in feeding the 5,000. 
In what do these acts find their supreme importance ? What is the very 
heart of the parable of the " Lost Sheep" ? Do you understand Christ's 
denunciations in Matt. 23 ? Why such severity ? How did Christ save 
Simon Peter ? (John 21 : 1-17). Do you understand the story of Lazarus ? 
Ke-read it, explaining each step's meaning. 



CHAPTEB XV. 
HOW CHRIST REVEALS GOD TO MAN. 

" He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." What mean 
these words of the Son of Man 1 ^^ I am a poor man/' Car- 
lyle is reported to have said in a conversation with Holman 
Hunt, " hut I can saj in serious truth, that I would give one 
third of all I possess for a veritable contemporaneous repre- 
sentation of Jesus Christ." But would the picture have satis- 
fied him? We gaze intently at the silhouette of an ancient 
hero, hut it does not satisfy us. It is only the black shadow 
of a dead face. We examine the photograph of a noble king 
and deliverer with more interest; yet we are not content. 
With still deeper interest we study from every side the de- 
liverer's statue. Yet none of these things satisfy us; they 
only increase our regret that we never saw the living man. 
And even when a descendant of the king is pointed out to us 
as " the very image " of his great ancestor, we turn from all 
external resemblances to ask, Is he the image of him in mind 
and character? Does he possess the same heroic ideals, the 
same humility, the same grand personality ? There is but one 
answer to such a question. — " Only a child expects impossi- 
bilities." And yet, when St. John leaned upon the breast and 
looked into the face of Jesus of ISTazareth, he saw God. 

How Man Sees God. " Jesus is God spelling Himself out 
in language that man can understand." Man once talked with 

173 



174 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

God and understood Him. But man left his home, his native 
land, his Father's house. The more he wandered from home 
the more he forgot the mother tongue of prayer ; and the more 
he failed to understand the meaning of his Father's answers. 
In despair he prayed for an Interpreter. His Father sent 
One from the old Eden home. The Interpreter had to speak 
the language of earth, but He lived the life of Eden. His life 
interpreted His words. His life interpreted His Father's 
words, and made man again hear His Father's voice, again feel 
His Father's love. For the Interpreter had come from God, 
to live the life of God, to do the work of God ; that all who 
accepted His words, and His life, should in seeing Him, see 
God. For every word of the Son is the word of the Father, 
every work of the Son is the work of the Father, and every 
revelation of the Son is the revelation of the Father. 

You have tried to think of God, to realize all that God is. 
Have you ever succeeded ? Have you ever partially suc- 
ceeded? Jesus of Nazareth is the perfect realization of our 
highest possible ideal of God. Can you conceive of anything 
that you would take out of the life of Christ to make it more 
Godlike? Can you conceive of anything you would add to 
His personality to make it more supremely the perfect mani- 
festation of God ? ;N"o. In the Person of the Christ we see 
God. In the love of Christ, we see the love of the Father. 
And in the sacrifice of Christ we realize the heart of the 
Father. 

Man Seeing God Create. " My Father worketh hitherto 
and I work." " The works that I do are not Mine but the 
works of Him that sent me." In the miracle at Cana of 
Galilee I see in human form, the invisible Maker of heaven 
and earth continuing His work. It is His creative voice I 
hear saying, " Fill the water pots with water. Draw out now 



HOW CHRIST REVEALS GOD TO MAN. 175 

and bear unto the governor of the feast." On the Galilean 
lake I stand trembling amid the frightened disciples in the 
storm-tossed ship. But in the lifting up of the face of Jesus 
I feel the Spirit of God again moving on the face of the 
waters. And in the words " Peace, be still/' I recognize the 
voice of Him who said, " Let the waters under the heaven be 
gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear ; 
and it was so." (Gen. 1 : 9.) 

I stand in a desert place amid thronging thousands, and 
like them I am faint with hunger. I hear the words of divine 
command. " Cause the men to sit down." I see the Son of 
Man take the lad's little loaves and fishes, and as I see their 
broken fragments increase until great multitudes have been 
satisfied, I hear again the voice of God; and the obedient 
earth brings forth seed after its kind, and the answering 
waters bring forth fish after their kind, and satisfied man, 
marvelling at the goodness of what was created, praises the 
power of the Creator. 

Again in the Synagogue of I^azareth, I listen to One who 
proclaims that His life-work is to heal broken hearts, open 
sightless eyes, unstop deaf ears, and liberate the slaves of sin. 
And in His words I hear the voice of Him who created eye, 
and ear and heart, and has come down to earth that He might 
restore what man had broken and destroyed. And when I 
follow Him into the homes of suffering and hovels of despair, 
when I see that the touch of His hand brings sight to the 
blind, strength to the shrivelled arms, and broken limbs; 
when I see the repulsive and despairing leper healed by His 
touch, and see the dead child hearing His voice, return to life 
and gladness ; then I know that it is the voice of the Creator 
that has spoken the word of life, and the " finger of God " 
that has touched the dying and the dead. 



176 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Man Seeing the Love of God. When Jesus, with the cre- 
ative power of the Pather, has fed the fainting thousands 
and restored to health their diseased bodies, afterward turns 
from a clamoring world and a waiting Kingdom to take into 
His arms and bless a little child, then I see not the measure- 
less might of the Creator, but the measureless love of the 
Father's heart hovering ovor His little ones to protect and 
bless. And upon my ears fall the words, " If a man have an 
hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not 
leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains, and 
seeketh that which is gone astray ? And if so be that he find 
it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, 
than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so 
it is not the will of your Father which is in Heaven, that one 
of these little ones should perish." (Matt. 18 :12-14.) And 
in the words of the Son I hear the voice of the Father, " Whoso 
shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth 
Me. (Matt 18 : 5.) I look upon Him who speaks, and I see 
not a man from I^azareth, but a vision of the heart of God, 
whose tenderness is like unto that of a little child. 

And in this vision of the tender heart of the All-Father, I 
understand the most terrible words that ever passed the lips 
of Divine Love. " Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites. For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against 
men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them 
that are entering to go in. (Matt. 23 :13.) For, as with fear 
and trembling, I gaze into the face of the Speaker (white 
with the awful power of His emotion), trying to understand 
that terrible intensity which fascinates, yet frightens me, 
there is a pause, — the voice breaks into a tear-filled cry; the 
cry of God's motherhood, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent 



HOW CHRIST REVEALS GOD TO MAN. 177 

unto thee, how often would I have gathered thj children 
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
wings, and ye would not!'' (Matt. 23; 37.) Then I know 
that these words of woe are the voice of God's love and 
tenderness for His children; who, seeking their Father's face 
are being kept out of His Kingdom, robbed of their heritage, 
and trained in hypocrisy by the very teachers who were ap- 
pointed to bring them home to God. 

So, in Jesus' love for sinners, I see, not the love of a man 
for his fellows, but the love of the Father seeking His own 
children. So, when, in the dusty highway of Jericho, I see 
Jesus stopping under a sycamore tree to call to Him the 
chief of despised publicans, I hear the voice of the Father 
pleading for a sinful son's return. In the words of Zaccheus, 
" Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; and 
if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, 
I restore him fourfold," (Luke 19: 8), T recognize the voice 
of a happy child who has found his Father's House. And in 
the words, ^^ This day is salvation come to this house " (Luke 
19: 9), I hear the loving voice of God who had gone out of 
His way to help the prodigal to return to His Father. 

Now understand I why the Father and Shepherd of souls 
cannot rest when one of His flock is lost ; and why, when He 
hath found the lost one He gathereth him into His arms or 
layeth him upon His shoulders and feels not the burden for 
the greatness of His joy. And later when I hear the scornful 
words, " Behold, the friend of publicans and sinners ! " I 
know that they come to the ears of the Father as sweet music, 
and that He saith to His angels, " Rejoice with me ! for I 
have found my child which was lost." 

Man Seeing God Forgive. How wide is the gulf between 
divine and human forgiveness I hear in the words of the 



178 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

Son of Man. " A certain king would take account of his 
servants." (Matt. 18:24-28.) One owes his Master an 
amount too vast for a lifetime to discharge, and his Master 
forgives the whole deht; and yet this debtor who was for- 
given a debt of millions, seeks a fellow-servant owing him a 
few dollars, and casts him into prison until he shall pay every 
penny. It is only the greatest soul that knows how to forgive. 
J^owhere do I see so vividly the greatness of God as in 
the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. 

At Capernaum I stand within the courtyard of a house 
crowded with eager listeners, there is an interruption. Then 
these words fall upon my ears, " Son, be of good cheer, thy 
sins be forgiven thee." And I hear in these words, not the 
voice of man, but the voice of God speaking to a sin-burdened 
child the words he most needed to hear, the forgiveness which 
only God can give. It is out of their hard and unforgiving 
hearts that the Scribes and Pharisees cry, " Who is this which 
speaketh blasphemies ? (Luke 5 : 21.) 

Keclining in the house of Simon the Pharisee, I listen to 
the words of an invited guest, " There was a certain creditor 
which had two debtors ; the one owed five hundred pence, and 
the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he 
frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them 
will love him most ? " " Simon, seest thou this woman ? 
* * * a -g-g^ g-jjg^ which are many, are forgiven " (Luke 
7 : 41-47). When the guests exclaim, " Who is this that for- 
givest sins ? " I am not surprised. For when I heard the 
words, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," I knew that I was listen- 
ing to the voice of the Father of all mercies. 

Later I see One in Jerusalem surrounded by the public 
teachers of the Holy City. I see Him calmly writing in the 
dust. Then as He suddenly faces His questioners, I hear 



HOW CHRIST EEVEALS GOD TO MAN. 179 

the words " He that is without sin among you, let him first 
cast a stone at her." (John 8:7.) Then, condemned and 
driven away by their own conscience, He who wrote in the 
dust said, ^' Go and sin no more," and again I recognize the 
voice of God that I heard in the house of Simon. 

In the early morning mist I stand upon a desert shore of the 
Galilean lake. I see the Son of Man looking upon a griev- 
ous sinner. It is not one whose bones are full of his father's 
sins. It is not a publican, a Samaritan, or an ignorant sin- 
ner. It is one of His own chosen Apostles, one to whom He 
has given His fullest confidence. His tenderest love. Yet 
one who, in the hour of his Lord's greatest need, most basely 
denied and deserted Him. To this one I hear Him say, 
" Lovest thou me? " (In my heart I answer, ITo, Lord, he 
does not. He bragged of his loyalty, and then, at the first 
temptation he basely denied Thee.) His forgiving Lord re- 
plies, " Feed my lambs." Again I hear His words, " Lovest 
thou me? " (Again to myself I answered, ISTo, Lord, he has 
proved that he does not love Thee. He vehemently denied 
Thee a second time.) The same forgiving voice again re- 
plies, " Feed my sheep." Once more I hear the words, 
"Lovest thou Me?" (Once more my hard heart answers, 
Lord, Thou knowest he does not love Thee, Thou knowest 
that he denied Thee thrice, even with lies and cursings.) It 
is the same voice of forgiving love that replies, " Feed My 
sheep." (Then my sinful self, condemned and trembling, 
cries. One only can thus forgive! I have heard the voice of 
God, The voice of Him who alone can forgive me.) 

Once more, in the gathering darkness, I see One rising 
from His knees to face a band that has come to murder Him. 
A' disciple defends his Teacher, and one of the hireling band 
loses his ear. But, (with loving pity,) He, whom they would 



180 HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

murder, touches the wound and restores the ear. Later, I 
see the Restorer standing before the High Priest. The hands 
that have healed and comforted so many, are cruelly bound. I 
see a member of the murderous band smite Him because He 
speaks the truth, while others mock Him, and contemptuously 
spit upon Him. Yet the Innocent One endures it all with the 
silence of His great forgiveness. I see Him surrounded by 
a band of brutal soldiers. He is clothed in. a royal robe, a crown 
of thorns is pressed upon His bleeding brow, a reed is put 
into His hand, and kneeling before Him, His mockers cry, 
" Hail, King of the Jews ! " And the Innocent One in the 
greatness of His love, breaks not His silence. 

Finally I see the Sinless One — unjustly condemned to die 
— ^bearing His cross towards Calvary. I hear Him break His 
silence to comfort those who weep for Him. Then, like a 
malefactor, He is hurried to His doom. I draw near; the 
soldiers are preparing to nail their prisoner to the cross. 
But He who is about to die utters no cry, a lamb in the hands 
of his shearers is not more dumb. I stop my ears against 
the cruel blows of the hammer. As He, silent and motionless, 
is lifted up above the people I hear no cry, but a prayer: 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
The hour of death draws near. He turns His face towards a 
penitent robber, I hear these words, " This day shalt thou be 
with Me in Paradise." Then know I that His is a forgiveness 
greater than man can measure or comprehend. I know that I 
have heard and seen what passeth all understanding — the 
very love of God. 

Seeing God quench Man's Tears. In the presence of death 
words become empty and meaningless. Silent sympathy is 
stronger than vehement words. The service of unspoken love 
is the voice that brings comfort. In the house of Jairus pro- 



HOW CHRIST REVEALS GOD TO MAN. Igl 

fessional mourners are mocking deepest sorrow with loudest 
noise. Christ of Nazareth enters, and sweet silence reigns. I 
see the tears of the father and mother cease as Jesus gently 
lifts the small white hand of their dead child. I hear His 
loving words, " Little Lamb, awake ! '' And as the little maid 
rises from her couch, and turns her questioning eyes from the 
loving face bending over her to the faces of her father and 
mother, I see all tears quenched, save those of gladness. And 
when to the parents, awe-struck and trembling in the great- 
ness of their joy. One says, " Give her to eat," I know it is 
the voice of Him, who in the beginning said, " Let us make 
man in Our image, after Our likeness." 

He whom Jesus loved is dead. The sorrowing Martha 
goes out to meet her friend. " Lord, if Thou hadst been here 
my brother had not died." The voice of the Eesurrection 
answers : " Thy brother shall rise again." Then comes 
Mary full of tears. " Lord, if Thou hadst been here my 
brother had not died." " Jesus wept." Standing before the 
tomb I hear strange words spoken to dead and offensive mat- 
ter, " Lazarus, come forth ! " And as I gaze into the darkness 
I see him that was dead struggling to walk forth in his grave 
bands. Then I know that I have heard the voice of God say- 
ing (as " in the beginning ") Let life come from the dust 
of the ground, and it was so. And as I see on every face, 
tears turn into joy and gladness, I know that I have a vision 
of the end, when " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more ; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; 
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Eev. 
7:16, 17.) 

As I recall all that I have seen and heard while following 



182 fiOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF CHRIST. 

the footsteps of the Son of Man, I am sure that I have 
been given a vision of the invisible God ; of the Creator con- 
tinuing His creative work ; of the Father, v^ho is Love, loving 
and forgiving the sinner to save him ; loving the outcast and 
the despairing to exalt him; loving the mourner to turn his 
sorrow into joy. Yet whenever I try to think of God, I find 
myself thinking of the Son of Man, and in every feature of 
His character I see realized my highest ideal of God. When 
I try to conceive of the Person of God, there rises before me 
the Person of One " Who went about doing good." When 
I struggle to understand Him to whom we say, " Our Father, 
who art in Heaven," there rises before me a vision of One in 
whose arms are little children, about whose feet are gathered 
the lambs of His flock, and who in the joy of His measureless 
love, says, " The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the 
sheep." 



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